Polish Gazette - Home Improvement: Tips To Make Your Projects ...

There?s a myth out there called feng shui that may really benefit you as a homeowner. By arranging the furniture a certain way, you can supposedly increase the good energy of your home. With a little elbow grease and a commitment of your time, your place can look much better. This article will teach you the core concepts of Feng Shui and how they apply to home improvement.

What?s the weather going to be like? If there is a lot of rain in your area, adding a patio or BBQ area would not be a good investment. Adding a covering to your patio may help, but the investment may not be worth it.

Try to make your budget as comprehensive as you can. Any additional expenses can start adding up and quickly eat into your budget. Planning your budget for things that can go wrong will help you be much better prepared to deal with changes.

If you?re revamping the room, use light or white tile or other material. Lighter colors reflect the sun instead of absorbing it, which means your attic will not be so hot. This can save you quite a bit on your power bill.

Spring is a good time to see if your roof has suffered any damage. Look for blistering or curling of the shingles, and replace those that are damaged. By doing this yearly maintenance of your roof, you can usually circumvent major and expensive repairs in the future.

When fixing up a house for re-sale, you need to deal with the outside first before working on heating and plumbing. The latter are items that cannot be immediately seen, but an exterior that looks neglected will affect the sale process both in terms of time and/or price.

It is important to pay any contractor with either a credit card or a check. By doing this, you can better protect yourself from scam artists that pocket your down payment money and then flee town. If you use a credit card, the transaction may be disputed for a significant amount of time following payment.

You have to comparison shop for supplies in order to get the best value for money. Some stores charge substantially more than others, and this could make a considerable difference.

When people look at homes, the number of bathrooms plays a major role in determining how they feel about the house. One of the most essential things about a household are how many bathrooms it has. Renovating to include one or two spare bathrooms can greatly increase your home?s value.

Work your water usage into your plans for home improvement. Low-flow shower heads, water-saving toilets and tank-less water heaters can be easily purchased and installed. Making improvements that are green will increase the value of your home a good deal as they bring the appeal of lower energy costs. In the very least you will lower your own energy costs.

A great way to set alcoves or niches apart from surrounding walls is to add wallpaper, or even better, to paint those alcoves and niches with an eye-popping accent color. You can use a sample size can of paint in order to save yourself the cost of buying an entire gallon.

Put old things in shoe boxes for extra storage space. You can cover these shoe boxes with unused wallpaper or fabric to add a touch of design. They make terrific storage containers, and they can even give your room a little extra drama.

As mentioned earlier, feng shui is the art of arranging your furniture in a fashion that promotes good fortune. This is a form of home improvement as well, as you can give a new appearance to your home by re-arranging your furniture.

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Source: http://polishgazette.com/?p=54172

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Computer simulations yield clues to how cells interact with surroundings

Mar. 22, 2013 ? Your cells are social butterflies. They constantly interact with their surroundings, taking in cues on when to divide and where to anchor themselves, among other critical tasks.

This networking is driven in part by proteins called integrin, which reside in a cell's outer plasma membrane. Their job is to convert mechanical forces from outside the cell into internal chemical signals that tell the cell what to do. That is, when they work properly. When they misfire, integrins can cause diseases such as atherosclerosis and several types of cancer.

Despite their importance -- good and bad -- scientists don't exactly know how integrins work. That's because it's very difficult to experimentally observe the protein's molecular machinery in action. Scientists have yet to obtain the entire crystal structure of integrin within the plasma membrane, which is a go-to way to study a protein's function. Roadblocks like this have ensured that integrins remain a puzzle despite years of research.

But what if there was another way to study integrin? One that doesn't rely on experimental methods? Now there is, thanks to a computer model of integrin developed by Berkeley Lab researchers. Like its biological counterpart, the virtual integrin snippet is about twenty nanometers long. It also responds to changes in energy and other stimuli just as integrins do in real life. The result is a new way to explore how the protein connects a cell's inner and outer environments.

"We can now run computer simulations that reveal how integrins in the plasma membrane translate external mechanical cues to chemical signals within the cell," says Mohammad Mofrad, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and associate professor of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley. He conducted the research with his graduate student Mehrdad Mehrbod.

They report their research in a recent issue of PLoS Computational Biology.

Their "molecular dynamics" model is the latest example of computational biology, in which scientists use computers to analyze biological phenomena for insights that may not be available via experiment. As you'd expect from a model that accounts for the activities of half a million atoms at once, the integrin model takes a lot of computing horsepower to pull off. Some of its simulations require 48 hours of run time on 600 parallel processors at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), which is located at Berkeley Lab.

The model is already shedding light on what makes integrin tick, such as how they "know" to respond to more force with greater numbers. When activated by an external force, integrins cluster together on a cell's surface and join other proteins to form structures called focal adhesions. These adhesions recruit more integrins when they're subjected to higher forces. As the model indicates, this ability to pull in more integrins on demand may be due to the fact that a subunit of integrin is connected to actin filaments, which form a cell's skeleton.

"We found that if actin filaments sustain more forces, they automatically bring more integrins together, forming a larger cluster," says Mehrbod.

The model may also help answer a longstanding question: Do integrins interact with each other immediately after they're activated? Or do they not interact with each other at all, even as they cluster together?

To find out, the scientists ran simulations that explored whether it's physically possible for integrins to interact when they're embedded in the plasma membrane. They found that interactions are likely to occur only between one compartment of integrin called the ?-subunit.

They also discovered an interesting pattern in which integrins fluctuate. Two integrin sections, one that spans the cell membrane and one that protrudes from the cell, are connected by a hinge-like region. This hinge swings about when the protein is forced to vibrate as a result of frequent kicks from other molecules around it, such as water molecules, lipids, and ions.

These computationally obtained insights could guide new experiments designed to uncover how integrins do their job.

"Our research sets up an avenue for future studies by offering a hypothesis that relates integrin activation and clustering," says Mofrad.

The research was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award to Mofrad. NERSC is supported by DOE's Office of Science.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Mehrdad Mehrbod, Mohammad R. K. Mofrad. Localized Lipid Packing of Transmembrane Domains Impedes Integrin Clustering. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013; 9 (3): e1002948 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002948

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/Byi8DuN9pCA/130322174339.htm

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'Something has been broken in Syria'

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) ? Anxious to keep Syria's civil war from spiraling into even worse problems, President Barack Obama said Friday he worries about the country becoming a haven for extremists when ? not if ? President Bashar Assad is ousted from power.

Obama, standing side by side with Jordan's King Abdullah II, said the international community must work together to ensure there is a credible opposition ready to step into the breach.

"Something has been broken in Syria, and it's not going to be put back together perfectly immediately ? even after Assad leaves," Obama said. "But we can begin the process of moving it in a better direction, and having a cohesive opposition is critical to that."

He said Assad is sure to go but there is great uncertainty about what will happen after that.

"I am very concerned about Syria becoming an enclave for extremism," Obama said, adding that extremism thrives in chaos and failed states. He said the rest of the world has a huge stake in ensuring that a functioning Syria emerges.

"The outcome is Syria is not going to be ideal," he acknowledged, adding that strengthening a credible opposition was crucial to minimizing the difficulties.

Eager to resolve another source of tension in the region, the president earlier Friday helped broker a phone call between the Israeli and Turkish prime ministers that led to the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Obama had come to Jordan from Israel, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed a call to Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan to apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish activists in a 2009 Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound international flotilla.

"The timing was good for that conversation to take place," Obama said.

Obama, at a joint news conference with Abdullah, said his administration is working with Congress to provide Jordan with an additional $200 million in aid this year to cope with the massive influx of refugees streaming into the country from Syria.

Abdullah said the refugee population in his country has topped 460,000 and is likely to double by the end of the year ? the equivalent of 60 million refugees in the United States, he said.

Obama also said he would "keep on plugging away" in hopes of getting the Israelis and Palestinians to reach a peace agreement.

"The window of opportunity still exists, but it's getting more and more difficult," the president said. "The mistrust is building instead of ebbing."

On Iran, Obama reiterated that the U.S. is open to "every option that's available" to keep the country from developing a nuclear weapon.

He said it would be "extraordinarily dangerous" for the world if Iran does become nuclear capable, and he expressed his desire for using diplomatic means to halt Iran's nuclear aspirations. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

"My hope and expectation is that among a menu of options, the option that involves negotiations, discussions, compromise and resolution of the problem is the one that's exercised," Obama said. "But as president of the United States I would never take any option off the table."

Obama arrived in Jordan on Friday evening, the final stop on a four-day visit to the Middle East that included his first stop in Israel as president.

He began his visit to Amman with an apology.

"I apologize for the delay," Obama told Abdullah after arriving about an hour behind schedule. "We ended up having a dust storm."

The two leaders headed to dinner after their news conference. On Saturday, Obama planned several hours of sightseeing, including a tour of the fabled ancient city of Petra, before the return trip to Washington.

Before leaving Israel, Obama paid his respects to the nation's heroes and to victims of the Holocaust. He also solemnly reaffirmed the Jewish state's right to exist.

Accompanied by Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, Obama laid wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism who died in 1904 before realizing his dream of a Jewish homeland, and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995.

He also toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, declaring afterward that it illustrates the depravity to which man can sink but also serves as a reminder of the "righteous among the nations who refused to be bystanders."

Friday's stop at Herzl's grave, together with Thursday's visit to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient Hebrew texts, were symbolic stops for Obama that acknowledged a rationale for Israel's existence that rests with its historical ties to the region and with a vision that predated the Holocaust. Obama has been criticized in Israel for his 2009 Cairo speech in which he gave only the example of the Holocaust as a reason for justifying Israel's existence.

"Here on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear," Obama said. "The state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but with the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel, such a holocaust will never happen again."

Obama and Netanyahu met for two hours over lunch. An Israeli official said that they discussed Israel's security challenges and that, in addressing the peace process with Palestinians, Netanyahu stressed the importance of security. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocol.

Obama also squeezed in a stop in Bethlehem in the West Bank to visit the Church of the Nativity.

He had been scheduled to take a helicopter to Bethlehem but had to change plans due to unusually high winds. The route gave Obama a clear look at Israel's separation barrier with the West Bank, which runs south of Jerusalem and is the subject of weekly protests by Palestinians.

About 300 Palestinians and international pilgrims gathered near the Nativity Church, awaiting Obama's arrival. But a knot of protesters along the route held up signs stating: "Gringo, return to your colony" and "US supports Israeli injustice."

At a nearby mosque, Mohammed Ayesh, a Muslim religious official in Bethlehem, issued a plea to Obama in a speech to worshippers: "America, where are your values? Where are the human rights? Isn't it time that you interfere to make it stop?"

Amid high security, Obama toured the church with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. They stopped at the Grotto of the Nativity, which is said to stand where Jesus Christ was born. About 20 children waving U.S. and Palestinian flags greeted Obama in a courtyard outside the sanctuary. He posed for photographs with Abbas and Bethlehem's mayor, Vera Baboun.

At Yad Vashem, Obama donned a skull cap and was accompanied by Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a survivor of the Buchenwald Concentration camp who lost both parents in the Holocaust. Among his stops was Yad Vashem's Hall of Names, a circular chamber that contains original testimony documenting every Holocaust victim ever identified.

"Nothing could be more powerful," Obama said.

___

Associated Press writers Dalia Nammari in Bethlehem, West Bank, and Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-warns-extremist-threat-syria-180949203--politics.html

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Brain mapping reveals neurological basis of decision-making in rats

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Scientists at UC San Francisco have discovered how memory recall is linked to decision-making in rats, showing that measurable activity in one part of the brain occurs when rats in a maze are playing out memories that help them decide which way to turn. The more they play out these memories, the more likely they are to find their way correctly to the end of the maze.

In their study, reported this week in the journal Neuron, the UCSF researchers implanted electrodes directly on a region of the rat brain known as the hippocampus, which is already known to play a key role in the formation and recall of memory. This same region is active when animals are learning, and it is damaged in people who have Alzheimer's and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The study showed that when the rats paused before an upcoming choice, sometimes the hippocampus was more active and sometimes it was less active. When it was more active it did a better job of recalling memories of places the animal could go next, and the animal was more likely to go to the right place.

"We know that considering possibilities is important for decision-making, but we haven't really known how this happens in the brain," said neuroscientist Loren Frank, PhD, who led the research. Frank is an associate professor of physiology and a member of the UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience at UCSF.

The work builds upon several years of investigations in Frank's laboratory that have shown how activity in the hippocampus is a fundamental constituent of memory retrieval. Their recent work shows that this activity is not just about remembering the past ? it is also important for thinking about the future. When the brain does a better job of thinking about future possibilities, it makes better decisions.

Next, the team wants to tease out why sometimes the hippocampus does not do a good job of playing out future options. Problems with memory and decision-making are central to age-related cognitive decline, and a deeper understanding of how this works could pave the way for interventions that make the brain work better.

###

The article, "Hippocampal SWR Activity Predicts Correct Decisions during the Initial Learning of an Alternation Task" is authored by Annabelle C. Singer, Margaret F. Carr, Mattias P. Karlsson, and Loren M. Frank. The work appears in the March 20, 2013 issue of the journal Neuron.

University of California - San Francisco: http://www.ucsf.edu

Thanks to University of California - San Francisco for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127385/Brain_mapping_reveals_neurological_basis_of_decision_making_in_rats

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Breakthrough could lead to cheaper, more sustainable chemical production

Mar. 21, 2013 ? A key advance, newly reported by chemists from Brown and Yale Universities, could lead to a cheaper and more sustainable way to make acrylate, an important commodity chemical used to make materials from polyester fabrics to diapers.

Chemical companies churn out billions of tons of acrylate each year, usually by heating propylene, a compound derived from crude oil. "What we're interested in is enhancing both the economics and the sustainability of how acrylate is made," said Wesley Bernskoetter, assistant professor of chemistry at Brown, who led the research. "Right now, everything that goes into making it is from relatively expensive, nonrenewable carbon sources."

Since the 1980s researchers have been looking into the possibility of making acrylate by combining carbon dioxide with a gas called ethylene in the presence of nickel and other metal catalysts. CO₂ is essentially free and something the planet currently has in overabundance. Ethylene is cheaper than propylene and can be made from plant biomass.

There has been a persistent obstacle to the approach, however. Instead of forming the acrylate molecule, CO₂ and ethylene tend to form a precursor molecule with a five-membered ring made of oxygen, nickel, and three carbon atoms. In order to finish the conversion to acrylate, that ring needs to be cracked open to allow the formation of a carbon-carbon double bond, a process called elimination.

That step had proved elusive. But the research by Bernskoetter and his colleagues, published in the journal Organometallics, shows that a class of chemicals called Lewis acids can easily break open that five-membered ring, allowing the molecule to eliminate and form acrylate.

Lewis acids are basically electron acceptors. In this case, the acid steals away electrons that make up the bond between nickel and oxygen in the ring. That weakens the bond and opens the ring.

"We thought that if we could find a way to cut the ring chemically, then we would be able to eliminate very quickly and form acrylate," Bernskoetter said. "And that turns out to be true."

He calls the finding an "enabling technology" that could eventually be incorporated in a full catalytic process for making acrylate on a mass scale. "We can now basically do all the steps required," he said.

From here, the team needs to tweak the strength of the Lewis acid used. To prove the concept, they used the strongest acid that was easily available, one derived from boron. But that acid is too strong to use in a repeatable catalytic process because it bonds too strongly to the acrylate product to allow additional reactions with the nickel catalyst.

"In developing and testing the idea, we hit it with the biggest hammer we could," Bernskoetter said. "So what we have to do now is dial back and find one that makes it more practical."

There's quite a spectrum of Lewis acid strengths, so Bernskoetter is confident that there's one that will work. "We think it's possible," he said. "Organic chemists do this kind of reaction with Lewis acids all the time."

The ongoing research is part of a collaboration between Brown and Yale supported by the National Science Foundation's Centers for Chemical Innovation program. The work is aimed at activating CO₂ for use in making all kinds of commodity chemicals, and acrylate is a good place to start.

"It's around a $2 billion-a-year industry," Bernskoetter said. "If we can find a way to make acrylate more cheaply, we think the industry will be interested."

Other authors on the paper were Dong Jin and Paul Willard of Brown and Nilay Hazari and Timothy Schmeier of Yale.

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Journal Reference:

1. Dong Jin, Timothy J. Schmeier, Paul G. Williard, Nilay Hazari, Wesley H. Bernskoetter. Lewis Acid Induced ?-Elimination from a Nickelalactone: Efforts toward Acrylate Production from CO₂ and Ethylene. Organometallics, 2013; 130321123314001 DOI: 10.1021/om400025h

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/sqP2FIO4FgM/130321151935.htm

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Lower preschool fees for NSW families | Ang Kalatas Australia

Preschool fees for 4 and 5-year olds will be more affordable for NSW families with the NSW Government immediately injecting $20 million into preschools Education Minister Adrian Piccoli announced today.

A $5 million capital works fund will also be established to ease preschool supply and access issues in targeted areas around the state.

?This $25 million initiative is part of the NSW Government move towards giving all children access to a preschool education program delivered by a qualified teacher in the 12 months prior to starting formal schooling,? Mr Piccoli said.

?Across NSW this will lead to fee reductions for families of up to 26%. In regional NSW the reduction will be up to 52%.

?These fee reductions will give children of families from low socio-economic circumstances greater access to preschool education, something many of them are missing out on now.?

?Here at KU Randwick Coogee a family with a 4 year old attending preschool three days a week will save about $450 between the beginning of Term 2 and the end of this year. At KU Bulli in Wollongong the saving will be $900, at KU Koala in Wagga Wagga $930, and at KU Conjola Place in Hammondville $950.?

The fee reductions will be delivered through a funding boost to services, and this must be passed on to families with enrolled children who will be four or five years old on or before 31 July 2013.

The NSW Government has also released the review of NSW Government Funding of Early Childhood Education conducted by Professor Deborah Brennan of the Social Policy Research Centre, University of NSW, which found approximately one in seven of the state?s children was missing out on an early childhood education.

The Brennan Report also revealed that:

? 30 per cent of NSW Government preschool funding does not focus on the target group of four to five-year-old children;
? Many four and five-year-old children are not receiving an early childhood education program with a qualified early childhood teacher, even though they are attending an early childhood service, and
? Current funding programs were poorly targeted and not directed at NSW strategic priorities for early childhood education.

?The NSW Government will be supporting all of Professor Brennan?s major recommendations,? Mr Piccoli said.

?Our response to the report commenced last year with a $30 million package of initiatives in early childhood education and care, and today we are moving on the key issue of preschool affordability.

?We will begin immediate consultation with the early childhood education and care sector on a new funding system that will be introduced from 2014. The NSW Government will take this opportunity to improve access and equity.

?Professor Brennan?s funding recommendations depend on continued significant Commonwealth Government support, and the fee reduction announcement was made possible by the Gillard Government?s release of money owed to the state under a National Partnership Agreement.

?This Agreement expires in June, and it is important that the Gillard Government quickly concludes negotiations with NSW for a new National Agreement.

?Only with Commonwealth Government support can the Brennan Report recommendations be delivered to improve the funding, quality and delivery of early childhood education and care into the future.

?The NSW Government will continue working on the Brennan recommendations with key stakeholders in the early childhood education and care sector,? Mr Piccoli said.

KU Children?s Services Chief Executive Christine Legg said affordability is one of the greatest barriers facing NSW families wanting to access a quality preschool program for their children.

?This funding will see the fees reduced for every 4 and 5 year old, in every KU preschool. We are confident that the lower fees will see more children coming to preschool,? Ms Legg said.

Ms Legg also welcomed the release of the Brennan Report.

?The report has been long awaited by the sector, is very thorough and has highlighted some the key funding issues that have plagued NSW preschools for many years. Greater investment is needed, and so KU congratulates the State Government both for releasing the report and this one-off funding to support families immediately.

?Importantly the State Government has recognised the need to get any new funding model right by consulting with the sector. Again, we congratulate the Government for making a longer term commitment to improving the affordability of preschool, and addressing some fundamental issues with the way NSW preschools have been funded.?

Professor Brennan warmly welcomed the Government?s acceptance of her recommendations.
?The new funding model will increase access to preschool education for those children most likely to miss out at present ? children in low-income families, Aboriginal and Islander children, those with limited English and children in rural and remote communities. This is a most welcome change of direction for NSW,? Professor Brennan said.
More information about the NSW Government?s preschool fee reduction initiative is available at http://www.dec.nsw.gov.au/about-us/statistics-and-research/public-reviews-and-enquiries/review-of-nsw-government-funding-for-early-childhood-education

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Source: http://kalatas.com.au/2013/03/21/lower-preschool-fees-for-nsw-families/

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South Korean Websites Taken Down In Possible Cyberattack From the North

BERLIN, March 19 (Reuters) - Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker has no plans to leave the English club before the end of his contract in two years despite media reports linking him with a immediate return to Germany, the player said on Tuesday. Mertesacker, who joined Arsenal in 2011 on a four-year deal, said he was annoyed with "constant" headlines in the English press saying that he should leave London. "It is a wonderful subject that has sort of become my favourite subject at the moment," Germany international Mertesacker told reporters. "It is strange for me. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-korean-websites-taken-down-possible-cyberattack-north-110733671.html

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Universe ages 80M years; Big Bang gets clearer

This image released on Thursday March 21, 2013 released by the European Space Agency (ESA) shows the most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background acquired by ESA's Planck space telescope. George Esfthathiou, an astrophysicist who announced the Planck satellite mapping on Thursday, says the findings also offer new specificity of the universe's composition. (AP Photo/ESA?Planck Collaboration)

This image released on Thursday March 21, 2013 released by the European Space Agency (ESA) shows the most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background acquired by ESA's Planck space telescope. George Esfthathiou, an astrophysicist who announced the Planck satellite mapping on Thursday, says the findings also offer new specificity of the universe's composition. (AP Photo/ESA?Planck Collaboration)

PARIS (AP) ? New results from a look into the split second after the Big Bang indicate the universe is 80 million years older than previously thought but the core concepts of the cosmos ? how it began, what it's made of and where it's going ? seem to be on the right track.

The findings released Thursday bolster a key theory called inflation, which says the universe burst from subatomic size to its now-observable expanse in a fraction of a second.

The Big Bang is the most comprehensive theory of the universe's beginning. It says the visible portion of the universe was smaller than an atom when, in a split second, it exploded, cooled and expanded rapidly, much faster than the speed of light.

The European Space Agency's Planck space probe looked back at the afterglow of the Big Bang, and those results have now added about 80 million years to the universe's age, putting it 13.81 billion years old.

The probe also found that the cosmos is expanding a bit slower than originally thought, has a little less of that mysterious dark energy than astronomers figured and a tad more normal matter. But scientists say those are small changes in calculations about the cosmos, nothing dramatic when dealing with numbers so massive.

"We've uncovered a fundamental truth of the universe," said George Esfthathiou, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambridge who announced the Planck satellite mapping. "There's less stuff that we don't understand by a tiny amount."

The $900 million Planck space telescope was launched in 2009. It has spent 15 1/2 months mapping the sky, examining light fossils and sound echoes from the Big Bang by looking at the background radiation in the cosmos. The device is expected to keep transmitting data until late 2013, when it runs out of cooling fluid.

Officials at NASA, which also was part of the experiment, said this provided a deeper understanding of the intricate history of the universe and its complex composition.

Outside scientists said the result confirms on a universal scale what the announcement earlier this month by a different European group confirmed on a subatomic scale ? that they had found the Higgs boson particle which explains mass in the universe.

"What a wonderful triumph of the mathematical approach to describing nature," said Brian Greene, a Columbia University physicist who was not part of the new research. "It's an amazing story of discovery."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-21-Birth%20of%20the%20Universe/id-1f843221cad7425aaa99a1d79b62ffc4

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PFT: Bears say Urlacher will not be back

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Charles Woodson played a pivotal role in the play that made the Tuck Role famous and he was happy to see the rule die on Wednesday.

?Hallelujah,? Woodson said during an interview with the NFL Network. ?It shouldn?t have taken this long. It?s been 11 years I guess now. It?s about time that they turned it over. It really was just a badly explained rule from the jump, and it didn?t make a whole lot of sense the way the rule was interpreted.So I think the best thing was for them to just throw it out.?

Based on the rest of the interview, the vote to abolish the rule gave Woodson a rare reason to smile. Woodson has had just one visit since becoming a free agent, with the 49ers last week, and said he?s resolved to remain patient in a market that?s been slower than he?d like.

?I thought it would be a little more interest,? Woodson said. ?I think, looking back, this is my second time in free agency and I?ve kind of been shunned both times. So I guess this time around, I?m a little more patient with it and just waiting around to see what happens.?I don?t take it personal. I understand how the game goes, I?ve seen it for 15 years now, and I?ve seen how it works. Just got to have a little patience.?

With the 49ers signing Craig Dahl, Woodson?s likely right about needing patience. There?s been word of interest from the Texans if Ed Reed winds up elsewhere and other teams may also turn their attention in his direction as free agency continues.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/20/bears-announce-brian-urlacher-will-not-be-back/related/

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NASA sees leaping lunar dust

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Electrically charged lunar dust near shadowed craters can get lofted above the surface and jump over the shadowed region, bouncing back and forth between sunlit areas on opposite sides, according to new calculations by NASA scientists.

The research is being led by Michael Collier at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., as part of the Dynamic Response of the Environment At the Moon (DREAM) team in partnership with the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), managed at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

"The motion of an individual dust particle is like a pendulum or a swing," says Collier. "We predict dust can swarm like bees around a hive over partially shaded regions on the moon and other airless objects in the solar system, such as asteroids. We found that this is a new class of dust motion. It does not escape to space or bounce long distances as predicted by others, but instead stays locally trapped, executing oscillations over a shaded region of 1 to 10 meters (yards) in size. These other trajectories are possible, but we now show a third new motion that is possible." Collier is lead author of a paper on this research published October 2012 in Advances in Space Research.

This effect should be especially prominent during dusk and dawn, according to the team, as regions become partially illuminated while features like mountains and crater rims cast long shadows.

"The dust is an indicator of unusual surface electric fields," says William Farrell of NASA Goddard, a co-author on the paper and lead of the NLSI DREAM team. "In these shaded regions, the surface is negatively charged compared to the sunlit regions. This creates a locally complex, larger electric field with separate positively and negatively charged regions, called a dipole field, over the shaded region. The dust performed its swinging motion under the influence of this dipole. Such a surface process occurring on the moon at the line where night transitions to day, called the terminator, might also occur at small bodies like asteroids. It might be a fundamental process occurring at airless rocky bodies."

There is evidence that dust actually moves this way over the lunar surface. "There are hints for this type of dust swarm in Surveyor images. A twilight was observed over the landed platforms during dusk and dawn. This was surprising at first because the moon does not have a dense enough atmosphere to scatter light when the sun is below the horizon. It was long considered to be light scattered from lifted dust. This model suggests the dust is really leaping or swarming overtop a large number of shaded regions that would exist along the lunar dusk/dawn line, called the lunar terminator. It's a natural fit. Charged lunar dust transport is also believed responsible for the Apollo 17 Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites (LEAM) experiment's observation of highly charged dust near the terminator," adds Collier.

To our eyes, the moon has no apparent activity and seems dead. However, because it has almost no atmosphere, the moon is exposed to the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically conducting gas called plasma blown off the surface of the sun at around a million miles per hour. The effects of sunlight and the solar wind generate a bustle of unseen commotion at the moon. On the day-lit side, sunlight knocks negatively charged electrons off the surface, giving it a positive charge. On the night side or in shadow, electrons from the solar wind rush in, giving the surface a negative charge.

The exact mechanism for launching lunar dust is not uniquely known. Micro-meteoroid impacts can transfer energy to the surface to launch particulates. Also, a rough surface has small, localized concentrations of electric fields that could lift dust electrostatically from the surface. The pendulum motion then happens because sunlit areas on the moon tend to get positively charged, while shaded areas become negatively charged. Since like charges repel each other, a positively charged dust grain in a sunlit area gets pushed away from the positively charged surface. If there were no negatively charged area nearby, the dust grain would rise straight up. However, since opposite charges attract, the positively charged dust gets pulled toward the negatively charged crater floor, bending its path over the crater. Dust launched from the sunlit area with just the right speed will pass over the shaded floor of the crater to the sunlit area on the other side, where the positively charged surface there will reflect it back over the crater again. When many particles do this, the model predicts there should be a swarm or canopy of dust over the crater.

If there were no complications, the particle could continue to bounce between sunlit areas on opposite sides of the crater indefinitely. However, in reality, things like differences in crater rim height, roughness on the crater floor, and interference from the solar wind that weakens the electric field produced by the surface charges can alter the particle's path. These perturbations cause the dust to eventually either fall into the crater or be launched away. "This model provides a natural explanation for the observation of dust ponds inside craters on the asteroid Eros," says Collier.

"Calculating how these complications will affect the path of a dust particle on the moon and around asteroids are good areas for future research," says Collier. "Additionally, we're not sure how many particles get charged and move like this ? is it something like one in a thousand, one in a million, or one in a billion? We'd like to do more studies to see how likely it is that a particle will behave this way. Since most of the lunar surface is covered in dust, even one in a billion would still be significant." The team is also planning on examining Apollo-era images to evaluate possible evidence for dust canopies over shadowed craters.

###

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Thanks to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127351/NASA_sees_leaping_lunar_dust

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White House: No evidence of rebel chem weapons use

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The White House says it has no evidence to back up Bashar Assad's claim that Syrian rebels have used chemical weapons.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says the U.S. is looking carefully at allegations that both sides are using chemical weapons. But he says he's skeptical of any claims made by the Syrian regime.

Carney says it's a serious concern for the U.S. that the Assad regime could use such weapons. He says President Barack Obama believes that would be unacceptable and that there would be consequences.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

The Obama administration is rejecting the claim by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels used chemical weapons Tuesday, an official said.

The U.S. official said the United States has no evidence that either the regime or rebels fired chemical weapons in the attack in northern Syria. The origin of the attack is still unclear, the official added, but noted that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, too, is reporting no independent information of chemical weapons use.

The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Syria's state-run news agency said 25 people were killed in the attack on the Khan al-Assad village in northern Aleppo province. It said 86 people were wounded, some in critical condition, and published pictures of children and others on stretchers in what appeared to be a hospital ward.

Russia, which has steadfastly supported Assad in Syria's two-year civil war, backed Assad's assertion Tuesday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the rebel use of chemical weapons represented an "extremely dangerous" development in a conflict that has already killed 70,000 people. It said the rebels detonated a munition containing an unidentified chemical agent, but didn't give further details.

Syria has one of the world's largest arsenals of chemical weapons and Washington has been on high alert since last year for any possible use or transfer of chemical weapons by Assad's forces. It feared that an increasingly desperate regime might turn to the stockpiles in a bid to defeat the rebellion or transfer dangerous agents to militant groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, which the Syrian government has long supported.

At the time, officials noted movement of some of the Syrian stockpiles but said none appeared to be deployed for imminent use. Still, President Barack Obama declared the use, deployment or transfer of the weapons to be his "red line" for possible military intervention in the Arab country.

U.S. officials say they've been closely monitoring Syria's unconventional weapons stockpiles and coordinating with allies in the region and beyond on possible contingency plans in the event the weapons are no longer secure. They've provided no indication that Syrian rebels seized some of the stockpiles or acquired such weaponry in recent months.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/white-house-no-evidence-rebel-chem-weapons-153141928--politics.html

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Pinterest Introduces Its Web Analytics Tool

Web analytics is a very important element of online marketing. It?s sometimes seen as dull and boring, perhaps because of the amount of numbers, data and statistics, but the truth is web analytics can be very powerful and useful, and provide you with new insights into how people interact with your website and new opportunities to attract visitors.

Web analytics is not just limited to your own website. Certain social media platforms like Facebook also have their own analytics (Facebook Insights) and now, the most recent addition is Pinterest Web Analytics. The popular social platform announced this recently on their blog.

What is Pinterest?

As you might know, Pinterest?is a tool that allows you to ?collect and organize the things you love?, basically by??pinning? photos onto boards, that you create. For business owners and marketers, Pinterest can be an interesting channel as you can create your own board, upload photos related to your business and thereby connect and engage with your target audience. Depending on the type of business you have, Pinterest can be a valuable source of traffic.

Pinterest Web Analytics

So back to web analytics: what is this new Pinterest Web Analytics? Here?s Pinterest?s own explanation:

Bloggers, businesses, and organizations often ask us, ?what are people pinning from my websites?? These website owners help create the content on Pinterest and we wanted to help them understand which pieces of content people find most interesting.?Web Analytics gives site owners insights into how people are interacting with pins that originate from their websites.

What are the features?

Pinterest explains that if you have a verified website, you will get information about

• how many people have pinned from your site
• how many people have seen these pins
• how many people visited your site from Pinterest

This seems like a useful tool to analyze if and how Pinterest is working for your business.

In addition, they will show you a selection of your most re-pinned, most clicked, and most recent pins so you have a better idea of what?s popular.

Impression of what Pinterest Web Analytics looks like.

How To Get Started

Follow these steps:

1. Get early access to Pinterest?s new look.
2. Make sure you have a verified website. If you have a website listed on your profile with a check mark next to it, you?re verified.
3. Once your website is verified, go to the top right menu and click on Analytics.
4. Start exploring! Change your date range to see how things have changed over time or download your analytics to sort through the data on your own time.

I think the new Web Analytics will be very helpful in better understanding your target audience and which content is most popular. Like web analytics in general, this tool helps you gain important insights to make better informed decisions, identify poor performing areas and capitalize on opportunities. I suspect Pinterest will be rolling out even more features in the future, but for now, this seems like a good start. For more information, visit Pinterest?s blog article.

?

Source: http://www.netconnexion.com/blog/pinterest-introduces-web-analytics-tool/

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It's tax time: 5 free apps and websites to get your finances in gear ...

With the tax season well underway, people are asking more questions than ever about their personal finances.? Thankfully, there are many tools online that?ll put you in the right direction and offer some really helpful suggestions.

Take a look at a few great choices below:

Mint,?www.mint.com, FREE

If you are looking to start tracking personal budgets so you can hit financial goals, Mint is the solution for you.? The beauty of this free website is that it brings in all of the finances from multiple bank institutions so you can have a general overview of where your money is going.

Mint can automatically categorize your spending so you can see how much of your income is going towards bills, rent, food, restaurants, etc., and you can set your monthly budgets accordingly.

Canadian Mortgage, iOS, FREE

This application, available for iOS devices, is great if you?re looking for an easy-to-use mortgage calculator.? If you?re a potential new homebuyer, this will give you a helpful snapshot as to a payment schedules.

With this tool, you can calculate your total monthly home cost, the variable and/or fixed payment rates and frequencies, including Canadian-specific factors like premiums, land transfer fees, first-time buyer rebates, local maps, and more.
This app is about as precise as an estimate is going to get.? The numbers are easily manipulated with a visually friendly slider to adjust the values and calculated results.? Calculations are tested and verified with some of Canada?s largest banks, and provides a good benchmark estimate of the payments to Canada?s lenders.

moneyStrands, iOS, FREE

moneyStrands is the app for you if you want to get your bills in check.? Using their bill tracker, you can view all reoccurring bills and colour-code them to indicate the urgency of payments.

Debt management is a cinch.? Their debt-to-income widget will assist in calculating whether your bills will outweigh your income. ?It?s easy to setup, free to use, and your content is secure with bank-level encryption on all information.

TurboTax Online,?www.turbotax.ca, FREE to use; $17.99 for standard NETFILE

Filing taxes yourself is simple to do with this software-free solution.? Its smart wizard will take you from start to finish, including direct and secure NETFILE to the Canadian Revenue Agency.

If you have a question, no problem!? There?s a live forum with frequently asked questions for you to reference, including determining what is eligible for a deduction.

TurboTax?s Deduction Toolbox will help you find every possible savings for your return?over 400 of them in their A-to-Z list.? TurboTax takes you through a personal profile, which will help them determine what you?ll be able to deduct from your income.

SnapTax by TurboTax, iOS, FREE to use; $9.99 for NETFILE

If you have generic and simple taxes to file, SnapTax by TurboTax is literally as easy as 1-2-3.

This app?yes, I said app?is for Canadians who have an iPhone, don?t have children or dependants, are under the age of 65, have RRSPs, charitable donations, and/or student tax deductions to claim.

Simply snap a photo of your T4 slip, answer a few questions, pay and NETFILE your taxes securely?all from the comfort of your smartphone. ?It really doesn?t get easier than that.

Take a look and try out the above apps and websites.? How do they work for you?? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

The great folks at TurboTax and Winston Sih Media want to help you get your taxes done on time! ?We are giving away FIVE copies of TurboTax Online Standard Edition?to five lucky readers.

Here?s how you can enter:

1. Give my Twitter a Follow ??@WinstonSih.

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3. Post the following on your Twitter and/or Facebook feed(s). ?You may enter ONCE on your Twitter, and ONCE on your Facebook. ?Duplicates will not be recorded.

Click?HERE?to automatically Tweet, or copy-and-paste the message below to your respective Twitter/Facebook feed(s).

?It?s tax time! Check out TurboTax Online and enter to win a FREE copy from @WinstonSih here: http://bit.ly/11bfGUf?

The deadline to enter is?Friday, April 5, at 11:59 p.m. ET. ?

*Click?HERE?for the Official Rules and Regulations of this contest.

Source: http://winstonsih.com/2013/03/18/its-tax-time-5-free-apps-websites-finances-gear/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-tax-time-5-free-apps-websites-finances-gear

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2012 NGA Sunshine State Championship Orlando,FL :Novice ...

---

Sunshine State Championship is an NGA sanctioned Pro Qualifying Bodybuilding, Bikini, Figure and Physique competition for all ages and experience levels. Sports competition is generally broken down into three categories: individual sports, such as archery; dual sports, such as doubles tennis, and team sports competition, such as cricket or football. While most sports competitions are recreation, there exist several major and minor professional sports leagues throughout the world. The Olympic Games, held every four years, is usually regarded as the international pinnacle of sports competition.

Tags: 2012, Championship, Comparison, Division, Figure, FL, NGA, Novice, Orlando, Round, shine, State, Su

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Michael Jordan Paternity Suit: Dismissed!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/michael-jordan-paternity-suit-dismissed/

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Apply Thunderbolt Display w/ Apple Keyboard & Mouse.

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Canon's unannounced $800 18MP EOS-b DSLR pops up on Best Buy's website for pre-order

It looks as though Canon will have a new DSLR to announce very shortly, if a listing on Best Buy's website is any indicator. The page offers us no images to ogle, but it betrays an unannounced 18-megapixel shooter dubbed the EOS-b, accompanied by an 18-55m lens kit and an $800 price tag. Canon Rumors notes a smaller footprint, trimming five ounces of fat and bulk off the T4i's measurements. The camera specs are identical to the T4i and EOS M, too, but an optical viewfinder and pop-up flash make us wonder if it isn't a pint-sized follow up to the T4i. You can look forward to a Digic 5 image processor, nine-point autofocus system, 3-inch 1.04K dot TFT-LCD touchscreen, four frames-per-second burst shooting, an ISO range from 100 to 12,800 with a high setting of 25,600 and HD video capture. There's no word on when this APS-C shooter will officially be announced, but you can try your luck at placing a pre-order by clicking the Best Buy source link.

Filed under: Cameras

Comments

Via: Canon Rumors, Photo Rumors

Source: Best Buy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/18/canon-eos-b-dslr-best-buy-leak/

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Allow Syncronisation with Microsoft Outlook on a PC

It is important for many users and business users to be able to synchronise their phone with their PC either at work or at home without using online storage or services. This is such a basic omission, when you buy windows enabled devices, it is expected that they can work with a windows pc

Source: http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions/suggestions/3754265-allow-syncronisation-with-microsoft-outlook-on-a-p

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St. Patrick's Day Food (And Drink!) Finds in Disney World | the ...

Disney World is always ready to celebrate a holiday, and they?ve been gearing up for St. Paddy?s Day for weeks now! On my last trip in February, I snapped a few shots of the green goodness you have available to you this weekend?

Drink Your Greens!

Any veteran Epcot fan knows that some of the best drinks in the World Showcase are beers and ciders from the Rose and Crown Pub in the UK pavilion, and luscious slushes from the France Pavilion. But on St. Patrick?s Day, these staples get glammed up!

Go green when it comes to your cider in the UK? . Note that lines at the pub and the outdoor beer tap get veeeeeery long on St. Patrick?s Day here!

Green Cider in Epcot for St. Patrick's Day

And consider greener pastures for your Grey Goose Citron Slush in France!

Grey Goose Citron Slush in Epcot's France Dresses Up for St. Patrick's Day

Greenified Cookies, Krispies, and Caramel Apples!

The bakeries and candy shops in Disney World have splashed the display cases with green this time of year!

Disney St. Patrick's Day clover-shaped cookies

Check out clover-shaped cookies, decorated caramel apples, and St. Patrick?s Day Mickey rice krispie treats?

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Of course ? don?t forget the fun St. Patrick?s Day Cupcake found at Disney?s Hollywood Studios!

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Even if you?re not in Disney World this weekend, maybe it?s time to dress up a few Mickey Rice Krispie Treats of your own! Let us know how you?re celebrating your St. Patrick?s Day weekend!

What St. Paddy?s Day Treats in Disney World strike your fancy? Let us know in the comments below!

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Posted in: Counter-Service, Cult Favorites, disney parks, Epcot, News, Snacks, Special Stuff.
Tagged: disney world holidays ? france slush ? Grey Goose Citron slush ? mickey rice krispie treats ? Rose and Crown Pub ? rose and crown restaurant ? St. Patrick's Day

Source: http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2013/03/16/st-patricks-day-food-and-drink-finds-in-disney-world/

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In China's shadow, Gitmo Uighurs languish on Palau

KOROR, Palau (AP) ? Ahmat Abdulahad can't help but laugh at the irony of his predicament.

He and five other Chinese Muslims released from America's Guantanamo military prison in 2009 thought they would be living on this remote island for a few months, maybe a year.

But more than three years later, they are still in Palau, and the patience ? and funding of this poor nation ? is running out. The government has cut Abdulahad's monthly stipend, so he can't pay his bills, not even those from the Palau Power Utility Corp., where he works as a night watchman. So he and his family, inadvertent inhabitants of one of the most beautiful islands in the Pacific, are learning to make do without electricity.

Palau has become a prolonged stopover in what is now a 12-year odyssey for a half dozen men from China's ethnic Uighur minority. They were swept up in Afghanistan as suspected terrorists, held without trial in Guantanamo for more than eight years, then became a cause celebre for Guantanamo opponents in the U.S., who saw them as hapless victims of the anti-terrorism effort and the circumvention of due process in the name of national security.

Now, all but one of them ? who quietly managed to make his way to Turkey to join his wife a few months ago ? remain stuck on Palau because no one else will take them.

"We are like the pieces in a chess game," Abdulahad, who is 42, said at a small, drab apartment building by the sea where three of the men live with their wives and children. He wears a prosthetic limb because he lost part of his left leg in the air raid when he was captured. "They have played us like that all these years."

Both the men and Palau's president say pressure from China, which says they are terrorists despite their release, is making it impossible for them to find refuge anywhere else. And having met a U.S. federal court order to release them from Guantanamo, U.S. government interest in finding them a permanent home appears to have dried up ? though officials say they are doing all they can.

"It's no secret China is very angry with Palau because of the resettlement," President Tommy Remengesau said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, one of his first since taking office in January. "It doesn't take a blind man not to notice that nobody wanted to take these men. The pressure was there from the beginning and the pressure continues to be there. Nobody will be open enough to say that they welcome the Uighurs because of that pressure."

China's Foreign Ministry and Public Security Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The Uighurs come from Xinjiang, an isolated region of western China that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and six Central Asian nations. They are Turkic-speaking Muslims who say they have long been repressed by the Chinese government. Many want Xinjiang to become independent, and in recent years, some have staged bombings and other attacks, mostly against police, government and military targets.

China considers Uighurs held in Guantanamo to be terrorists and has demanded they be repatriated. But since they would almost certainly face imprisonment or even torture if sent back to China, other countries had to be found. The U.S. refused to grant them asylum. Nearly a dozen now live in Albania, Bermuda, El Salvador and Switzerland. Three remain in custody at the U.S. Navy facility in Cuba.

Palau, a country of 20,000 people that relies heavily on the United States for defense and aid, agreed to take six Uighurs on a temporary basis. The former U.S. trust territory, which became independent in 1994, didn't have much to lose. It is one of the few countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, instead of Beijing, and to sweeten the deal, Washington promised $600,000 to help pay for the men's stay.

But Palau says it has done enough.

"The funds have run out. My government is not in a financial situation to deal with them here," Remengesau said. "Culturally it just doesn't fit. Their religion is different from 99 percent of the people of Palau. It hasn't been an entirely stable situation for us. They're not happy. If they had their choice, they would rather be somewhere else."

Even Palau has felt Beijing's wrath, he said, noting that construction of a beachfront resort being developed by Chinese investors abruptly stopped as soon as the Uighur deal was announced. It is a major eyesore, boarded up and vacant, along the main street of Koror, Palau's biggest town, and just a short walk from a bustling hotel built by Taiwanese developers.

Former President Johnson Toribiong, who was voted out of office in November in part because of allegations that he misused the funds intended for the Uighurs, said he never intended for Palau to be a final destination.

"I assumed that I would be able to take care of them and by the end of my term find them a permanent place to go to," he said.

Last month, Palau's government confirmed that one of the men, Adel Noori, had left the island. According to a local newspaper, Noori made his way to Turkey via Japan. Officials in Palau and Washington say they cannot comment because of security concerns.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the United States is working diligently to seek permanent homes for the remaining Uighurs and is "coordinating closely with Palau on matters related to the remaining individuals temporarily resettled there."

But officials on Palau say they are not even sure who to contact in Washington. Special envoy Daniel Fried, who negotiated the Palau deal and was in charge of finding placements for cleared detainees at Guantanamo, was transferred to a new job in January. No replacement has been named, which has been widely seen as more evidence that President Obama's zeal to close Guantanamo ? a major campaign promise before his election in 2008 ? has waned under congressional opposition.

"We need a timetable, and a plan of action. That's where the frustration comes," Remengesau said. "We are looking for a happy ending. These are human beings. They deserve respect."

For now, the five Uighur men eke by, most working as security guards and making about $500 a month, which is about the poverty level even by Palauan standards. Prospective employers are reluctant to hire them, and if they speak English at all, it is mostly what they picked up in prison. The only other Muslims on Palau are a small number of Bangladeshis.

"When we were released we were very happy," said Abdulghappar Abdulrahman, another of the Uighurs. "But now it is like being in Guantanamo again."

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington in Washington, D.C., and Jonathan Kaminsky in Olympia, Wash., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-17-AS-Palau-Life-After-Gitmo/id-2b18724241c44b9385c65a9970346c48

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