May 24, 2013 — The Ring Nebula, whose iconic shape and large size make it a favorite of amateur astronomers, can now be seen in new detail, after NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a sharp image of the nebula. Researchers say the new clarity reveals details that were previously unseen, and a structure that's more complex than scientists believed.
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May 24, 2013 — A portraits series shows what — or rather, who — remains in an Oklahoma neighborhood. For most, amid the rubble, it's a mix of fear, disbelief and resilience.
May 24, 2013 — There is some political willingness, but because China is highly decentralized politically, the Communist Party has only limited influence over provincial governments and how they regulate their dirty factories. The powerful state-owned oil companies have also resisted pressure to produce cleaner-burning fuel.
May 24, 2013 — It's the first disclosure of prices in the nation's most populous state for individual health insurance that complies with the Affordable Care Act. The menu of affordable options surprised some consumer advocates and analysts who had been expecting premiums to be much higher.
May 24, 2013 — Seven months after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Jersey Shore, Asbury Park is still waiting for insurance and federal aid money. In the meantime, it borrowed $10 million to repair the waterfront in time for the critical Memorial Day weekend.
May 24, 2013 — The Truffaut borrowings are explicit in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, while Richard Linklater's Before Midnight takes its cues from Eric Rohmer's gentle but expansive talkfests. In both films, conversation is a centerpiece as characters navigate relationships.
The famous Ring Nebula is shown here in striking detail, in a composite image made from images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and infrared data from telescopes on Earth. (NASA, ESA, C.R. Robert O'Dell, G.J. Ferland, W.J. Henney and M. Peimbert)
Ring Nebula Is More Like A Jelly Doughnut, NASA Says
May 24, 2013 — The Ring Nebula, whose iconic shape and large size make it a favorite of amateur astronomers, can now be seen in new detail, after NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a sharp image of the nebula. Researchers say the new clarity reveals details that were previously unseen, and a structure that's more complex than scientists believed.The Ring Nebula, whose iconic shape and large size make it a favorite of amateur astronomers, can now be seen in new detail, after NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a sharp image of the nebula. Researchers say the new clarity reveals details that were previously unseen, and a structure that's more complex than scientists had believed.
"The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it's like a jelly doughnut, because it's filled with material in the middle," says C. Robert O'Dell of Vanderbilt University, who leads a team of researchers studying the Ring Nebula. They combined Hubble's visible-light images with infrared data from telescopes on Earth.
The basis of the new image was captured by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed in 2009.
Located in the constellation Lyra, the nebula is some 2,000 light-years from Earth. The new view of the nebula allowed O'Dell's team to create a precise 3-D model of the nebula.
"O'Dell's team suggests the ring wraps around a blue, football-shaped structure. Each end of the structure protrudes out of opposite sides of the ring," according to NASA.
By comparing the recent examination of the Ring Nebula with data from 1998, researchers determined that the nebula is expanding at more than 43,000 miles an hour, with the center moving faster than the main ring.
"All of this gas was expelled by the central star about 4,000 years ago," NASA says. "The original star was several times more massive than our sun. After billions of years converting hydrogen to helium in its core, the star began to run out of fuel. It then ballooned in size, becoming a red giant. During this phase, the star shed its outer gaseous layers into space and began to collapse as fusion reactions began to die out. A gusher of ultraviolet light from the dying star energized the gas, making it glow."
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Istanbul (AFP/Getty Images)
Who Defines Who We Are?
by Alva Noë
May 24, 2013 — To understand the origin of traits, you need, in effect, to look at how we think and feel about the traits we have. What we are is fixed, in part, by us. That was one of the thoughts prompted by commentator Alva Noë's arrival in Istanbul this week.See this
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In The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond offers a clever — if speculative — theory of the origins of race. After first dismissing the idea that racial differences are functional adaptations to different climates, he proposes that the tendency for certain people to look alike in respect of facial features, skin color, body type, etc., is a consequence of the fact that people mostly choose to reproduce with people like themselves. He points to studies suggesting contemporary couples tend statistically to be like each other in respect of finger size and the distance between the eyes. This is a kind of sexual selection. To understand the origin of traits, you need, in effect, to look at how we think and feel about the traits we have. What we are is fixed, in part, by us.
I thought of this last night when I arrived, for the first time, in Istanbul.
Although it was after midnight, traffic was heavy as my taxi worked its way along the water into the heart of the city. Booming Turkish hip-hop-like music bounced out of the car next to us. But the music sounded Eastern. At the heart of the song was a horn riff that sounded like something you'd expect on the soundtrack to an old Abbott and Costello movie set in the Middle East. The melodic twirl spoke loud: this is a Turkish sound!
I wondered: is this just what people here know and like, or do they know and like it because, after all, it is a tune that they think goes with being them? Is this like race — at least according to Diamond's hypothesis — something that defines us but only because, somehow, maybe unconsciously, we believe it should?
You can see evidence of this kind of downward looping everywhere. Cops in Law and Order-type TV shows affect working class accents. But maybe working-class people retain working-class accents because they believe, on some level, that this is how they should sound.
Could it be that speaking in broad dialect — like the man who served me a bratwurst in Dresden, Germany a few nights ago — is actually a kind of sophistication? A kind of universal irony that defines us all the way down?
This would explain the persistence of regional variation and dialect in the face of state-run education and the media.
Another example: The taxi driver on the way into town last night offered me a cigarette. Is smoking still normal here? Was this a simple act of politeness?
Back at the hotel, the clerk mentioned there were cups in the room that could be used as an ashtray. Ashtrays themselves, he noted, are forbidden. Ah, so the move to prohibit smoking in public places is known here in Istanbul, too.
So maybe the taxi driver wasn't just being polite. Maybe he was expressing an attitude towards smoking. Maybe he wasn't so much backward, an unreconstructed smoker, as he was, well, subversive?
I found myself wishing I smoked. It would have been nice to accept the smoke and, in doing so, be like the man who had offered it.
You can keep up with more of what Alva Noë is thinking on Facebook and on Twitter: @alvanoe
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Construction workers work to rebuild the boardwalk in Seaside Heights in anticipation of Memorial Day weekend. (AP)
Battered Jersey Shore Pins Recovery Hopes On Summer Season
by Scott Gurian
May 24, 2013 (All Things Considered / NJN Public Radio) — Seven months after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Jersey Shore, Asbury Park is still waiting for insurance and federal aid money. In the meantime, it borrowed $10 million to repair the waterfront in time for the critical Memorial Day weekend.See this
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Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the summer travel season, and it's particularly important for the resort communities along the Jersey Shore still suffering the effects of Hurricane Sandy.
In the popular tourist spot Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., it has taken seven months and more than $1 million to make repairs along Jenkinson's Boardwalk.
After repairing the flooded aquarium, rebuilding the miniature golf courses and replacing the damaged planks, contractors were still busy doing final repairs in anticipation of the holiday weekend. But the occasional sounds of saws and hammers didn't seem to deter the steady stream of visitors who have already started to arrive.
Toby Wolf, Jenkinson's marketing director, says she has been pleasantly surprised by how great the boardwalk looks. "As far as the restaurants and the boardwalks and the attractions, we really made sure that we're ready to go," she says.
Open For Business
The state plans to spend $25 million of federal recovery money on an ad campaign to lure people back to the Jersey Shore. At stake are tens of thousands of seasonal jobs and a $19 billion industry that accounts for more than half of New Jersey's total tourism revenue.
Asbury Park Mayor Ed Johnson says the city could not afford to wait for the insurance and federal aid money to arrive, so it has borrowed $10 million to repair the waterfront in hopes of being reimbursed at a later date.
"We're a mom and pop business community," Johnson says. "We're not talking about Macy's and Targets and Wal-Marts here. We're talking about people that cashed in their savings, mortgages, pension plans to open up their businesses. So being open this summer, this is our bread-and-butter season. We knew that we needed to start with ourselves and get this up and running."
Memorial Day A First Step
In Belmar, crews raced to finish pouring concrete just in time for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly rebuilt boardwalk. Tourists like Nada Benkabbou and her friends barely seemed to notice the construction taking place around them. "This is like the favorite place to go, and I just thought I'd come visit, to see how it's doing," Benkabbou says.
In a recent AAA survey, nearly 80 percent of New Jersey and Philadelphia-area residents said that Sandy has not affected their summer travel plans, and most plan to spend the same amount of time at the Jersey Shore as in previous years. Business owners from Sea Bright to Cape May are hoping that a strong turnout this holiday weekend signals the first step in helping them get back on their feet.
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Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo speaks with journalists in Guatemala City before boarding a plane for the U.S. on Friday. (AFP/Getty Images)
Ex-Guatemalan President Extradited To U.S.
by Scott Neuman
May 24, 2013 (NJN Public Radio) — Alfonso Portillo was taken from a hospital bed in Guatemala City and flown to New York to face charges of laundering $70 million through U.S. banks.Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo has been extradited to the United States, where he faces charges of laundering tens of millions of dollars through U.S. banks.
Portillo, who served as president from 2000 to 2004, was snatched from a hospital bed in Guatemala City, where he was recovering from liver surgery. He was placed on an airplane bound for New York, according to his lawyer, Mauricio Berreondo.
The former president is accused of laundering $70 million in Guatemalan funds through U.S. banks. He was taken from the military hospital on orders of Interior Secretary Mauricio Lopez Bonilla, Berreondo said.
"I blame the government for what could happen to him," the lawyer said. "Portillo is sick and there are several pending appeals."
"This decision is an important affirmation of the rule of law and due process in Guatemala," the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala said in a statement. "We commend the Guatemalan authorities in the strengthening of the rule of law and the fight against organized crime and corruption."
In 2009, a U.S. grand jury said Portillo should face charges and Guatemala's supreme court endorsed an extradition request that was rubber-stamped by then-President Alvaro Colom, Reuters reports.
Two years later, a Guatemalan court cleared Portillo of local embezzlement charges, but the U.S. extradition request stood.
The Associated Press reports that "in the U.S. case, Portillo allegedly deposited the money in Miami and transferred it to a Paris account in the name of his ex-wife and daughter."
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Heart with congestive heart failure showing an enlarged left ventricle. (Science Source)
Heart Failure Treatment Improves, But Death Rate Remains High
by Nancy Shute
May 24, 2013 (NJN Public Radio) — Treatments with drugs and implanted devices have made it much less likely that people with heart failure will die suddenly. But this chronic disease is still a common killer, researchers say.See this
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This is one of those "good news, but" medical stories.
New treatments for heart failure have made it much less likely that people with this chronic condition will die suddenly.
But an analysis by researchers at UCLA finds that the death rate for people with advanced heart failure remains stubbornly high, with 30 percent of people dying within three years.
"They're not dying suddenly, but their disease is still progressing," says Dr. Tamara Horwich, an assistant professor of medicine at UCLA and a co-author of the study, which was published in Circulation Heart Failure.
Still, that's a lot better than 50 years ago, when heart failure patients were pretty much sent home to die. Heart failure has many causes, including heart attack, diabetes, high blood pressure and viral infections. But the effect is the same: a heart that doesn't move blood effectively.
About 6 million people in the United States have heart failure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is the primary cause of 55,000 deaths a year.
In the past 20 years, medical care for heart failure has changed radically, with new medications and devices. Horwich and her colleagues wanted to see if these advances were helping patients in the real world.
The people in this study were referred the UCLA center in their early 50s, on average; this is not a disease just for the old. The study looked at 2,500 patients who had been treated at UCLA from 1993 to 2010.
They found that three drugs — ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, and aldosterone antagonists — had been widely adopted for treatment of heart failure between 1993 and 2010. At the same time, the number of people with implanted automatic heart defibrillators went from 11 percent to 68 percent. The implanted defibrillators correct abnormal heart rhythms, a big cause of sudden death.
Death rates were 42 percent lower for patients in the most recent treatment group, between 2005 and 2010, than for the patients in the 1990s. That was largely due to a drop in sudden cardiac deaths.
But deaths from progressive heart failure remained high, with 31 percent of patients dying in the latter part of the study, compared to 36 percent in the 1990s. People could be coming to UCLA sicker than in years past, Horvich speculates, having survived heart attacks and other problems that would have killed them in the past.
But it could also be because those people are ending up on implantable ventricular assist pumps or getting heart transplants, very expensive treatments that are difficult for many people to tolerate.
"We're not curing the disease," Horvich tells Shots. "We're delaying the inevitable." And that means, she says, that "we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us" in finding ways to prevent and treat heart failure.
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