"Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings, out of 300 million, that are are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!"
ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2012) ? In a new study published in the Oct. 16 issue of Developmental Cell, corresponding author Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Phillip Newmark and colleagues report the identification of genes that control growth and regeneration of the intestine in the freshwater planarian Schmidtea mediterranea.
How animals repair their internal organs after injury is not well understood. Planarian flatworms are useful models for studying this question. After injury, they are able to re-grow missing body parts, as well as all as organs that are damaged or lost, such as brain, eyes, and intestine.
Injury initiates a complex set of cellular events. In planarians, specialized somatic stem cells called neoblasts divide and give rise to all of the different cell types required to rebuild fully functional body parts. Old tissue remaining after amputation remodels and integrates with the new cells that are produced.
The molecular signaling pathways coordinating these cellular behaviors to achieve organ regeneration have not been well characterized. David Forsthoefel, a postdoctoral researcher in Newmark's laboratory and the lead author on the study, wanted to address the problem using the planarian intestine as a "model organ," in part because so few animals are capable of repairing severe damage to their digestive systems.
"The ability to recover from loss of digestive tissue is rare in the animal kingdom," Forsthoefel said. "What we learn from how a simple worm deals with gut damage might one day help us to come up with better medical therapies, for example in the treatment of short bowel syndrome, in which segments of intestine must be removed from patients with digestive diseases, leading to impaired nutrient absorption."
Forsthoefel developed a method for purifying a single intestinal cell type from the planarian gut. He and Newmark lab members then went on to identify over a thousand genes that were uniquely expressed at higher levels in intestinal cells than in the surrounding planarian tissues. Guessing that some of these genes would have important roles during intestinal growth and regeneration, they probed the function of a subset of these genes using a technique called RNA interference, in which the expression of individual genes is selectively inhibited. They were able to pinpoint functions for specific genes, for example in the establishment of the appropriate pattern of intestinal branches, and the production of functional intestinal cells capable of taking up nutrients.
The authors also identified a transcription factor called nkx-2.2 that, although expressed in the intestine, was required for neoblasts to proliferate in various contexts, including after injury. This result suggests a potential role for the intestine in regulating stem cell division, a result Forsthoefel is following up by identifying genes downstream of Nkx-2.2 that might have more direct roles in communication between the intestine and neoblasts.
"How cells in the vicinity of damaged tissue contribute to the choices stem cells make in response to injury is an area of regeneration biology where much more research is needed," Forsthoefel said.
The field of regeneration research is rife with such uncharted territory. How do animals manage to produce the correct number specific cell types, at the correct locations? What are the signals that instruct stem cells to become specific cell types, and where do they come from? How is organ-specific morphology, for example the number of intestinal branches, determined? This study from the Newmark lab, the first systematic effort to elucidate intestinal morphogenesis in planarians, lays the groundwork for addressing many of these fundamental questions of organ regeneration.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
David?J. Forsthoefel, No?lle?P. James, David?J. Escobar, Joel?M. Stary, Ana?P. Vieira, Forrest?A. Waters, Phillip?A. Newmark. An RNAi Screen Reveals Intestinal Regulators of Branching Morphogenesis, Differentiation, and Stem Cell Proliferation in Planarians. Developmental Cell, 2012; 23 (4): 691 DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2012.09.008
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Tunis (Reuters) - A Tunisian court on Wednesday sentenced a leader of radical Islamist groupAnsar al-Sharia to one year in prison for inciting an attack on the U.S. embassy in Tunis last month in which four people were killed.
The conviction of Abu Ayub was the first in connection with the attack - launched to protest against an anti-Islamic film made in California - and is likely to please the United States which has been urging the authorities to jail those responsible.
"The judge decided to jail him on charges of inciting violence ... This decision is unfair ... we will go to appeal," said Rafik Ghak, a lawyer for Abu Ayub.
The authorities arrested 144 people, including two prominent leaders of Ansar al-Sharia after the embassy attack. Saif-Allah Benahssine, the leader of the group, has urged the government to release them.
Benahssine on Tuesday accused the country's government of being a puppet of the United States and un-Islamic.
The United States this month requested Tunisia bring the embassy attackers to trial, pledging to continue its support for the democratic transition in Tunisia.
A suspected Islamic militant under arrest in Tunisia is being investigated by the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. government sources have said.
Tunisia expects Washington to guarantee around a fifth of its $2.2-2.5 billion borrowing needs next year to help its economy recover from last year's revolution, the country's minister of international cooperation, Riadh Betaib, told Reuters last month.
(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Imagine looking up to see that Armie Hammer is the guy helping you out of a tragic situation.?The actor got added to our list of celebrity heroes Tuesday after we found out that he and model Leeann Tweeden went to the aid of some strangers who got into a car accident on Friday night.
Luckily, Tweeden gave a detailed description of what happened on her Facebook page.
Jack Osbourne helps save a drowning woman in Hawaii
"So random random RANDOM. I was sitting in my house when I hear an accident tonight. I throw on my shoes and run out of my house to see if I can help," she wrote. "I see it's on my (busy) corner and run down that way. I run up as a guy is helping an older woman (60ish?) out of her smashed up car that both airbags deployed in.
"Now mind you, it's rush hour at a busy intersection. People are honking at other cars because one lane is blocked and people can't go through the debris in the open lane fast enough for others.
"But it's me and this guy helping the woman (2 other girls are there. One was a witness on her Vespa. The other in her car in the parking lot of the flower shop.)"
T.I. saved someone from committing suicide
And then she finds out that "this guy" is not just any other guy.
"When the guy turns around, who is it?!!!! None other than: ARMIE HAMMER!!!!! (Yes, from "The Social Network," "J. Edgar" and the upcoming "The Lone Ranger" with Johnny Depp!)
There are more real-life heroes than you may think
"Yes, ladies. The cutie Armie was in the opposite turn lane in his Audi and watched the whole thing go down and got out of his car to help. Me and him. Out of millions in LA."
How exciting! Tweeden also mentioned that she had met the actor and his wife once before, and leaves fans knowing that "no one was seriously injured."
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Achieving success in the ecommerce world is very much like becoming successful in other business formats. Some of the necessary ingredients for building an online shopping cart site that is successful include determination, persistence, hard work, and careful attention to details. Before you decide that launching an online business venture is right for you, however, review these ten online?shopping cart tips.
Tip #1: Consider your company?s name. What is the best way to feature that name in the universal resource locator, or URL? (The URL is your company?s website address.) Often, your business?s exact name is no longer directly available as a URL. However, a slightly different version of it, or a version that uses your store and product name will likely be available for registration. This website address will be a key component of your advertising and marketing strategies, so choose it carefully.
?Tip #2: Develop a website for your web shopping cart that is easily navigated and attractive to customers. Use a design template, or consult with professionals to design a website that will accomplish both these objectives.
Tip #3: Invest in an online shopping cart solution or network storage solution that can be expanded when your store grows. In addition, choose one that best meets the needs of your ecommerce website. Some of the elements to evaluate include security of transaction data, reliability (how frequently the server crashes, and what volume of traffic the network or solution can manage), and specific functions offered by the solution. Also, search for shopping cart solutions that offer ecommerce business strategies.
Tip #4: Select merchant accounts for secure credit card and banking transactions that are designed especially for online shopping carts. Opt for an account that offers the capacity to accept, at minimum, the three most popular types of credit cards as well as Paypal. Evaluate accounts that also accept bank draft transactions.
Tip #5: Make the most of online shopping cart solutions that include ecommerce features such as dedicated email addresses and targeted mailing lists. These components can help your online retail business stand out among competitors, and further the enhancement of ecommerce business strategies designed to further differentiate and advance business branding.
Tip #6: Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of ecommerce marketing strategies by using a specific promotional code for each strategy. By doing this, you will be able to identify which promotions are most effective.
Tip #7: Evaluate all of the text used on your ecommerce website to ensure that you are using terms that will result in effective search engine optimization. Select words that will offer the best search results for your business, and use these words carefully to obtain the highest possible search rankings. Doing this, and submitting the website for your business to top search engines will increase the probability that people shopping online for products will be directed to your online shopping cart.
Tip #8: When developing a website, choose a certain date to celebrate a Grand Opening ? or a reopening ? of your online store, if applicable. Then, promote specials that will be available on this date by targeted email advertising campaigns.
Tip #9: Schedule regular times and dates for website maintenance and redesigning. Remember to introduce and announce new elements in your shopping cart site design. Some of the features to include are feedback forms, blog sites, surveys, and polls.
Tip #10: Keep track of what online shopping cart tips work ? and be aware of the ecommerce tips that don?t work. Use web analytics to continuously monitor the ecommerce marketing strategies that customers find effective. Evaluate which of your pages might require design or text changes to encourage visitor traffic. After you have made these changes, be sure to inform your customers and regular visitors by
email that you have done so. Additionally, note the changes and updates you made to other pages on the website?s main page as well.
Utilizing these ten ecommerce tips, you can establish a successful Internet store, or further the success of an already-existing store. Begin by using these tips, and continue to update your virtual store and expand your business by following these guidelines.
UH professor to lead international drilling expeditionPublic release date: 23-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa Merkl lkmerkl@uh.edu 713-743-8192 University of Houston
Voyage to give scientists glimpse into earth's development
HOUSTON, Oct. 23, 2012 From finding the first deep-water hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico to locating the meteorite impact that doomed the dinosaurs, scientific ocean drilling has unlocked some major mysteries. A University of Houston (UH) geologist hopes to uncover more such secrets as co-chief scientist on a major international expedition to recover the first-ever drill core from the lower crust of the Pacific Ocean.
Jonathan E. Snow, an associate professor in the department of Earth and atmospheric sciences, will co-lead 28 scientists, chosen from hundreds of applicants around the world, aboard the JOIDES Resolution research vessel on a voyage supported by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The geoscientists on this two-month, $10 million expedition will gather rock samples and data from the lower crust of the ocean that will distinguish between two competing theories on the rate and location of the intrusion of magma into the Earth's lowermost crust.
"We will be the first to see the rocks that test these models, with the rest of the global ocean crust community eagerly waiting to see the results," Snow said. "Volcanoes are spectacular things, but they do much more than pose hazards for human populations. They are directly responsible for creating the ocean crust beneath two-thirds of our planet. Deep beneath the volcanic eruptions, molten magma that doesn't erupt cools slowly to form the crystalline layers of the deep crust, through processes that we don't yet understand well."
Covered by miles of water and rock, the deepest layers of the ocean crust are about as inaccessible as it gets, and little was known about them until the 1970s, when deep-diving submersibles and deep-water drilling vessels came on the scene. Since then, scientific drilling has discovered that the ocean crust is formed by a continuous process of volcanic seafloor spreading, one of the key revelations that led to the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics governing many of the key processes that shape the Earth.
"The formation of the deepest layers, the intrusive lower crust, is the most difficult part to study, because it's situated not only beneath three to five miles of seawater and sediment, but also beneath the extrusive upper layers," Snow said. "Getting at these deep layers requires a combination of deep drilling, using advanced technologies developed for oilfield use, and a location where deep cracks in the Earth remove much of the volcanic layer, making the lower crust more accessible."
The JOIDES Resolution is the ship that will drill into the lower crust. Designed for deep-sea exploration, it is more than 450 feet long, with a drilling derrick, accommodations for 130 people and a floating laboratory for the analysis of core samples. Snow will share his co-chief scientist duties with Kathryn Gillis, professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences and associate dean of the Faculty of Science, at the University of Victoria in Canada. They will join 26 other international scientists on this expedition from December to February.
"Researchers work their entire careers to be co-chief scientist on one of these expeditions," Snow said. "I am flattered that my name came to the top of the list. I'm only the second person from UH ever to get the call."
###
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the nation's best colleges for undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city, UH serves more than 39,500 students in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region in the country. For more information about UH, visit the university's newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/.
About the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with 187 ranked faculty and more than 5,000 students, offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in the natural sciences, computational sciences and mathematics. Faculty members in the departments of biology and biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, earth and atmospheric sciences, mathematics and physics conduct internationally recognized research in collaboration with industry, Texas Medical Center institutions, NASA and others worldwide.
About the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international research program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring and monitoring the subseafloor. The JOIDES Resolution is a scientific research vessel managed by the U.S. Implementing Organization of IODP (USIO). Together, Texas A&M University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership comprise the USIO. IODP is supported by two lead agencies: the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. Additional program support comes from the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), the Australia-New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC), India's Ministry of Earth Sciences, the People's Republic of China (Ministry of Science and Technology), and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. For more information, visit http://www.iodp.org.
To receive UH science news via e-mail, sign up for UH-SciNews at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/mailing-lists/sciencelistserv/index.php.
For more information about UH, visit the university's newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/.
For additional news alerts about UH, follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UHNewsEvents and Twitter at http://twitter.com/UH_News.
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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.
UH professor to lead international drilling expeditionPublic release date: 23-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lisa Merkl lkmerkl@uh.edu 713-743-8192 University of Houston
Voyage to give scientists glimpse into earth's development
HOUSTON, Oct. 23, 2012 From finding the first deep-water hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico to locating the meteorite impact that doomed the dinosaurs, scientific ocean drilling has unlocked some major mysteries. A University of Houston (UH) geologist hopes to uncover more such secrets as co-chief scientist on a major international expedition to recover the first-ever drill core from the lower crust of the Pacific Ocean.
Jonathan E. Snow, an associate professor in the department of Earth and atmospheric sciences, will co-lead 28 scientists, chosen from hundreds of applicants around the world, aboard the JOIDES Resolution research vessel on a voyage supported by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The geoscientists on this two-month, $10 million expedition will gather rock samples and data from the lower crust of the ocean that will distinguish between two competing theories on the rate and location of the intrusion of magma into the Earth's lowermost crust.
"We will be the first to see the rocks that test these models, with the rest of the global ocean crust community eagerly waiting to see the results," Snow said. "Volcanoes are spectacular things, but they do much more than pose hazards for human populations. They are directly responsible for creating the ocean crust beneath two-thirds of our planet. Deep beneath the volcanic eruptions, molten magma that doesn't erupt cools slowly to form the crystalline layers of the deep crust, through processes that we don't yet understand well."
Covered by miles of water and rock, the deepest layers of the ocean crust are about as inaccessible as it gets, and little was known about them until the 1970s, when deep-diving submersibles and deep-water drilling vessels came on the scene. Since then, scientific drilling has discovered that the ocean crust is formed by a continuous process of volcanic seafloor spreading, one of the key revelations that led to the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics governing many of the key processes that shape the Earth.
"The formation of the deepest layers, the intrusive lower crust, is the most difficult part to study, because it's situated not only beneath three to five miles of seawater and sediment, but also beneath the extrusive upper layers," Snow said. "Getting at these deep layers requires a combination of deep drilling, using advanced technologies developed for oilfield use, and a location where deep cracks in the Earth remove much of the volcanic layer, making the lower crust more accessible."
The JOIDES Resolution is the ship that will drill into the lower crust. Designed for deep-sea exploration, it is more than 450 feet long, with a drilling derrick, accommodations for 130 people and a floating laboratory for the analysis of core samples. Snow will share his co-chief scientist duties with Kathryn Gillis, professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences and associate dean of the Faculty of Science, at the University of Victoria in Canada. They will join 26 other international scientists on this expedition from December to February.
"Researchers work their entire careers to be co-chief scientist on one of these expeditions," Snow said. "I am flattered that my name came to the top of the list. I'm only the second person from UH ever to get the call."
###
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the nation's best colleges for undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city, UH serves more than 39,500 students in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region in the country. For more information about UH, visit the university's newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/.
About the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with 187 ranked faculty and more than 5,000 students, offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in the natural sciences, computational sciences and mathematics. Faculty members in the departments of biology and biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, earth and atmospheric sciences, mathematics and physics conduct internationally recognized research in collaboration with industry, Texas Medical Center institutions, NASA and others worldwide.
About the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) is an international research program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring and monitoring the subseafloor. The JOIDES Resolution is a scientific research vessel managed by the U.S. Implementing Organization of IODP (USIO). Together, Texas A&M University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership comprise the USIO. IODP is supported by two lead agencies: the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. Additional program support comes from the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), the Australia-New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC), India's Ministry of Earth Sciences, the People's Republic of China (Ministry of Science and Technology), and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. For more information, visit http://www.iodp.org.
To receive UH science news via e-mail, sign up for UH-SciNews at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/mailing-lists/sciencelistserv/index.php.
For more information about UH, visit the university's newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/.
For additional news alerts about UH, follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/UHNewsEvents and Twitter at http://twitter.com/UH_News.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 23-Oct-2012
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