Why Isn?t My Green Card Green?

As Fourth of July rolls around, and we predictably reflect on all things American, I reflected about the one thing that makes me (officially, sort of) American: my green card. I look at it, and it?s hard not to wonder, why isn?t my green card green? This card that has allowed me to work, go to college, get federal aid, and travel abroad freely since 2007, is in fact beige. This year, I decided that I would find out the answer.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=c2a56c71cb928921cecfaa0e938bac49

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Royal Box: Prince William and Kate visit Wimbledon

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/royal-box-prince-william-kate-visit-wimbledon-143532799.html

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Asian stocks slightly lower ahead of ECB meeting

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-stocks-slightly-lower-ahead-ecb-meeting-040336445--finance.html

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Pilot in disturbance not guilty due to insanity

FILE - In this April 2, 2012, file photo, JetBlue pilot Clayton Frederick Osbon, right, is escorted to a waiting vehicle by FBI agents as he is released from The Pavilion at Northwest Texas Hospital, in Amarillo, Texas. On Tuesday, July 3, a federal judge in Texas found Osbon, a JetBlue Airways pilot who left the cockpit during a flight and screamed about terrorists, not guilty by reason of insanity. (AP Photo/Amarillo Globe-News, Michael Schumacher)

FILE - In this April 2, 2012, file photo, JetBlue pilot Clayton Frederick Osbon, right, is escorted to a waiting vehicle by FBI agents as he is released from The Pavilion at Northwest Texas Hospital, in Amarillo, Texas. On Tuesday, July 3, a federal judge in Texas found Osbon, a JetBlue Airways pilot who left the cockpit during a flight and screamed about terrorists, not guilty by reason of insanity. (AP Photo/Amarillo Globe-News, Michael Schumacher)

(AP) ? A JetBlue Airways pilot who left the cockpit during a flight and screamed about religion and terrorists has been found not guilty by reason of insanity, though a federal judge ordered he be sent to a mental health facility for further examination.

The judge issued the ruling during a bench trial Tuesday in Amarillo for Clayton F. Osbon, noting he suffered from a "severe mental disease or defect." Osbon's attorney, Dean Roper, declined to comment.

Osbon was indicted on one charge of interfering with a flight crew after the March 27 incident on a flight from Las Vegas to New York. Passengers said they wrestled him to the floor after he ran through the plane's cabin yelling about Jesus and al-Qaida.

U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson ruled that Osbon, who recently was found mentally competent to stand trial after a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, be sent to a federal mental health facility for further examination until another hearing on or before Aug. 6. The judge will decide then whether he can be released or should be committed to a mental facility.

Next month's hearing puts the burden on Osbon to show "by clear and convincing evidence" that his release would not pose future danger, according to the court records.

JetBlue spokeswoman Alison Croyle said Tuesday that the airline "continues to support the Osbon family; we don't have further comment as we let the judicial process play out."

"We can confirm he is still employed, on inactive status, with JetBlue," she said.

Anthony Antolino, a passenger aboard the flight, declined comment on the verdict Tuesday. He said he has flown JetBlue and other airlines since the incident and has felt no reservations about air travel.

"I think things like this are few and far between," he said. "However, I think the FAA ought to use this as an example in determining how to screen pilots and those who control airplanes. There was no tragedy here, thankfully, but the FAA shouldn't have to wait for a tragedy."

The pilot's wife, Connye Osbon, issued a statement in April saying the in-flight outburst "wasn't intentionally violent toward anyone" and asked the media to respect her family's privacy.

According to court documents, Osbon showed up at the airport unusually late on the morning of the flight and the plane was in midair when he eerily told his first officer they wouldn't make it to their destination.

Osbon started rambling about religion. He scolded air traffic controllers to quiet down, then turned off the radios altogether and dimmed the monitors in the cockpit. He said aloud that "things just don't matter" and encouraged his co-pilot they take a leap of faith.

The first officer then "became really worried," according to a sworn affidavit from FBI agent John Whitworth. "Osbon started trying to correlate completely unrelated numbers like different radio frequencies, and he talked about sins in Las Vegas."

Osbon then left the cockpit and tensions on the plane began to escalate, according to witness accounts compiled by investigators. Osbon, described by neighbors in Georgia as tall and muscular, "aggressively" grabbed the hands of a flight attendant who confronted him and later sprinted down the cabin while being chased.

From inside the locked cockpit, which Osbon tried to re-enter by banging on the door, the co-pilot gave an order through the intercom to restrain Osbon, the affidavit said. Passengers wrestled Osbon to the ground, and one female flight attendant's ribs were bruised during the struggle. No one on board was seriously hurt.

At least 10 passengers sued JetBlue after the incident, claiming they feared for their lives and that the airline was "grossly negligent" in allowing Osbon to fly.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-04-Flight%20Disrupted-Captain/id-4ef97f1a86d04cad917c6a5ca1a08fec

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Mel Gibson's stepmother seeks stay-away order

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mel-gibsons-stepmother-seeks-stay-away-order-020600543.html

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North Korea's new image: Platform shoes, earrings, cell phones

Attempting to forge a new image for himself and his country, North Korea's youthful supreme leader Kim Jong Un is allowing women to wear pants, platform shoes and earrings, making more mobile phones available, endorsing previously banned foods like pizza, French fries and hamburgers ? and he's giving kids free trips to zoos and amusement parks.

The 20-something leader's focus has been on the younger generation. Following in the footsteps of his late grandfather, the country's founder Kim Il Sung, he has announcing plans to create a "children's heaven nation."

"It's all part of his image making to imitate a warm, fatherly impression like his grandfather," said Dong Yong-Sueng, North Korea specialist at Samsung Economic Research Institute.

Kim Jong Un, who officially assumed the title of supreme leader on Dec. 28 last year following the state funeral of his father Kim Jong Il, wants to establish an image that harkens back to what some North Koreans nostalgically remember as better times in the 1970s under his grandfather, a time when the country was economically backed by the Soviet Union with sufficient food to feed the nation.

Kim Jong Un's father, who had ruled since1994, was seen as a strong but cold leader.

The image of the supreme leader has significance in a tightly controlled society where people often refer to their leaders as the father of the nation with "everlasting love," as well as other fanciful names like the sun, universe, eternal general, or dear leader.

Kim Jong Un has publicly sought to embrace the youthful energy of the country.

"The powerful and prosperous Korea of the future in which you will be the masters, will be a most powerful country where every home will be full of laughter and everybody lives in harmony," he announced to a crowd of 20,000 children invited to Pyongyang at a ceremony marking the 66th anniversary of the Korean Children's Union earlier this month. The union is a state-run organization for nine to 14-year-olds.

The invited children, handpicked by party officials, were given opportunities to visit zoos, amusement parks, and attend concerts. Crowds of enthusiastic kids were seen pledging allegiance, shouting, and crying at the sight of their new leader, who wore the children's symbolic red scarf.

Kim, educated in Switzerland during his early teens, has initiated numerous policy changes to allow people more freedom and entertainment in their daily lives. North Korean state TV last month showed an image of Kim in a straw hat with a huge smile paying a visit to Mangyongdae Amusement Park and pointing at its roller coaster.

The park had recently imported new rides from France. Kim, the report said, ordered the managers to keep the rides up and running at all times and to upgrade its electronic video game arcades for citizens, especially children. Kim was also seen browsing through the park's fast food restaurant that sells hamburgers and French fries.

In the past, such delights were considered too western and were banned. But now they're endorsed by the party. "These facilities are eternal gifts to the people by our great leader," state TV reported.

Another popular policy change that Kim pushed to win hearts was the lifting of the ban on women wearing pants in public.

"The rule was proposed by Kim to his father in 2010. That marked the beginning of a fashion revolution in North Korea," said Dong.

The only times women had been allowed to wear pants were when they were working in factories or in the fields. Any women walking the streets in pants were subject to a police warning or a penalty.

"If caught, sometimes they would cut your pants right there in public to make it into a skirt," said Park Ye-Kyong who defected to the South in 2004. But even when the tough restrictions applied, women did not stop pursuing fashion, including getting their hair permed or dyed.

"Yes, we were hungry but desire to look beautiful lies in any woman," Park explained shyly in her new home in Seoul.

North Korean women spotted wearing skinny jeans and earrings often make news in South Korean media because such items were known to be confiscated in the name of being too capitalist. But the trend has been visible in the past few years, and now platform shoes are in demand.

"The heels make legs look longer," explained Dong.

Platforms ranked second out of 10 most popular items in North Korean society last year, according to analysis by the Samsung Economic Research Institute. The study is based on what average North Koreans acquired using information from defectors, press and other sources.

"The international media tends to show the privileged in Pyongyang, or the hunger-stricken poor in the northern regions. But our standard in choosing what's hot there was strictly focusing on daily realistic lives of average families," explained Dong.

There is no way to determine how large a percentage of North Koreans can afford new products or how widespread their availability. The government has always maintained that all citizens are equal.

According to the Institute's analysis the number one hit item was coal briquettes commonly used as fuel in households. After Kim Jong Un announced a "prosperous great nation" as his inaugural pledge, the regime pumped up production of coal in massive amounts to export in exchange for Chinese goods that improve living standards.

But the study also found that these coals, easily made into briquettes, were smuggled out to North Korea's black markets pushing down prices.

The no. 3 hit item behind briquettes and platform shoes were mobile phones. Subscribers to Egypt's Orascom, North Korea's sole network provider, will soon reach one million this year. In reality, many more in bordering towns possess mobile phones illegally purchased in China.

Park's elder sister residing in the North owns a mobile and regularly communicates with Park in the South when making bi-monthly business trips to the Chinese border. The siblings have been meeting each other each year or two in China. Park said that each time they meet she takes items her sister requests, such as dresses and platform shoes.

"My sister tells me that now there's even an Italian pizza parlor and cafes in her home town... and my toddler nephew just had his first real western birthday cake from a new bakery, not the one made of rice," said Park showing pictures of her sister's family.

Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered an increase in the number of licenses for privately-run restaurants to make cities appear robust and lively.

"Lots of choices now exist if you are rich enough in North Korea," she said. Witnesses say people are now learning to enjoy coffee, a rare drink in a country where self-reliance and therefore "strictly Korean home-grown products" remain at the center of its socialist values.

The most popularly available brand is Maxim's instant coffee mix, made in South Korea. The coffee is smuggled into the North via China.

Another widely consumed South Korean product is the Choco-pie, a chocolate covered mini-cake filled with marshmallows. Most of them slip out from Gaesong Industrial Park just above the North-South border, where South Korean factories employ 50,000 North Korean laborers. Each worker is given two to three Choco-pies as daily snacks, but most workers save the sweets to sell on the black market.

"That means 100,000 to 150,000 Choco-pies slither into the black market every day. Choco-pies are like money to these people," Park said.

These changes in food and fashion that Kim Jong Un seems to be embracing are the result of the impact of foreign culture and information. The sweet taste of capitalism has been spreading at a cost to a traditionally paranoid regime that has attempted to barricade its population from foreign influence.

But a substantial portion of the North Korean people now have access to information from the outside world through foreign TV, radio and DVD players, easily smuggled in. The spread of USBs and MP4s containing popular South Korean shows or dramas have been viral, and awareness of the outside world has grown exponentially, according to a recent study released by InterMedia Survey.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-koreas-image-shaped-platform-shoes-earrings-cell-192244070--abc-news-topstories.html

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With ?Connected Apps,? Foursquare Firms Its Position As The Social Network For Places

cling13The timing was horrendous - right in the middle of Google I/O - but location-based social network Foursquare announced a major change to its mobile platform this week which shouldn't go unnoticed (even if it didn't involve skydivers wearing?futuristic?eyewear). The company introduced a developer preview of what it's calling its "next evolution" - Connected Apps. The new framework allows developers create their own experiences inside Foursquare, which enables them to connect with Foursquare users as events are happening. The result? Foursquare is setting itself up as mobile users' go-to app for socializing around a location.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/rooNG1b4aN8/

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DNA sequenced for parrot's ability to parrot

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Jul-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Ashley Yeager
ashley.yeager@duke.edu
919-681-8057
Duke University

DURHAM, N.C. -- Scientists say they have assembled more completely the string of genetic letters that could control how well parrots learn to imitate their owners and other sounds.

The research team unraveled the specific regions of the parrots' genome using a new technology, single molecule sequencing, and fixing its flaws with data from older DNA-decoding devices. The team also decoded hard-to-sequence genetic material from corn and bacteria as proof of their new sequencing approach.

The results of the study appeared online July 1 in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Single molecule sequencing "got a lot of hype last year" because it generates long sequencing reads, "supposedly making it easier to assemble complex parts of the genome," said Duke University neurobiologist Erich Jarvis, a co-author of the study. He is interested in the sequences that regulate parrots' imitation abilities because they could give neuroscientists information about the gene regions that control speech development in humans.

Jarvis began his project with collaborators by trying to piece together the genome regions with what are known as next-generation sequencers, which read chunks of 100 to 400 DNA base pairs at a time and then take a few days to assemble them into a draft genome. After doing the sequencing, the scientists discovered that the read lengths were not long enough to assemble the regulatory regions of some of the genes that control brain circuits for vocal learning.

University of Maryland computational biologists Adam Phillippy and Sergey Koren -- experts at assembling genomes -- heard about Jarvis's sequencing struggles at a conference and approached him with a possible solution of modifying the algorithms that order the DNA base pairs. But the fix was still not sufficient.

Last year, 1000 base-pair reads by Roch 454 became available, as did the single molecule sequencer by Pacific Biosciences. The Pacbio technology generates strands of 2,250 to 23,000 base pairs at a time and can draft an entire genome in about a day.

Jarvis and others thought the new technologies would solve the genome-sequencing challenges. Through a competition, called the Assemblathon, the scientists discovered that the Pacbio machine had trouble accurately decoding complex regions of the parrot, Melopsittacus undulates, genome.

The machine had a high error rate, generating the wrong genetic letter at every fifth or sixth spot in a string of DNA. The mistakes made it nearly impossible to create a genome assembly with the very long reads, Jarvis said.

But with a team, including scientists from the DOE Genome Science Institute and Cold Spring Harbor in New York, Phillippy, Koren and Jarvis corrected the Pacbio sequencer's errors using shorter, more accurate codes from the next-generation devices. The fix reduces the single-molecule, or third-generation, sequencing machine's error rate from 15 percent to less than one-tenth of one percent.

"Finally we have been able to assemble the regulatory regions of genes, such as FoxP2 and egr1, that are of interest to us and others in vocal learning behavior," Jarvis said.

He explained that FoxP2 is a gene required for speech development in humans and vocal learning in birds that learn to imitate sounds, like songbirds and parrots. Erg1 is a gene that controls the brain's ability to reorganize itself based on new experiences.

By being able to decode and organize the DNA that regulates these regions, neuroscientists may be able to better understand what genetic mechanism causes birds to imitate and sing well. They may also be able to collect more information about genetic factors that affect a person's ability to learn how to communicate well and to speak, Jarvis said. He and his team plan to describe the biology of the parrot's genetic code they sequenced in more detail in an upcoming paper.

Jarvis added that as more scientists use the hybrid sequencing approach, they could possibly decode complex, elusive genes linked to how cancer cells develop and to the sequences that control other brain functions.

###

Citation: Hybrid error correction and de novo assembly of single-molecule sequencing reads. Koren. S., et. al. Nature Biotechnology. Published online July 1, 2012. DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2280.


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[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 2-Jul-2012
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Contact: Ashley Yeager
ashley.yeager@duke.edu
919-681-8057
Duke University

DURHAM, N.C. -- Scientists say they have assembled more completely the string of genetic letters that could control how well parrots learn to imitate their owners and other sounds.

The research team unraveled the specific regions of the parrots' genome using a new technology, single molecule sequencing, and fixing its flaws with data from older DNA-decoding devices. The team also decoded hard-to-sequence genetic material from corn and bacteria as proof of their new sequencing approach.

The results of the study appeared online July 1 in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Single molecule sequencing "got a lot of hype last year" because it generates long sequencing reads, "supposedly making it easier to assemble complex parts of the genome," said Duke University neurobiologist Erich Jarvis, a co-author of the study. He is interested in the sequences that regulate parrots' imitation abilities because they could give neuroscientists information about the gene regions that control speech development in humans.

Jarvis began his project with collaborators by trying to piece together the genome regions with what are known as next-generation sequencers, which read chunks of 100 to 400 DNA base pairs at a time and then take a few days to assemble them into a draft genome. After doing the sequencing, the scientists discovered that the read lengths were not long enough to assemble the regulatory regions of some of the genes that control brain circuits for vocal learning.

University of Maryland computational biologists Adam Phillippy and Sergey Koren -- experts at assembling genomes -- heard about Jarvis's sequencing struggles at a conference and approached him with a possible solution of modifying the algorithms that order the DNA base pairs. But the fix was still not sufficient.

Last year, 1000 base-pair reads by Roch 454 became available, as did the single molecule sequencer by Pacific Biosciences. The Pacbio technology generates strands of 2,250 to 23,000 base pairs at a time and can draft an entire genome in about a day.

Jarvis and others thought the new technologies would solve the genome-sequencing challenges. Through a competition, called the Assemblathon, the scientists discovered that the Pacbio machine had trouble accurately decoding complex regions of the parrot, Melopsittacus undulates, genome.

The machine had a high error rate, generating the wrong genetic letter at every fifth or sixth spot in a string of DNA. The mistakes made it nearly impossible to create a genome assembly with the very long reads, Jarvis said.

But with a team, including scientists from the DOE Genome Science Institute and Cold Spring Harbor in New York, Phillippy, Koren and Jarvis corrected the Pacbio sequencer's errors using shorter, more accurate codes from the next-generation devices. The fix reduces the single-molecule, or third-generation, sequencing machine's error rate from 15 percent to less than one-tenth of one percent.

"Finally we have been able to assemble the regulatory regions of genes, such as FoxP2 and egr1, that are of interest to us and others in vocal learning behavior," Jarvis said.

He explained that FoxP2 is a gene required for speech development in humans and vocal learning in birds that learn to imitate sounds, like songbirds and parrots. Erg1 is a gene that controls the brain's ability to reorganize itself based on new experiences.

By being able to decode and organize the DNA that regulates these regions, neuroscientists may be able to better understand what genetic mechanism causes birds to imitate and sing well. They may also be able to collect more information about genetic factors that affect a person's ability to learn how to communicate well and to speak, Jarvis said. He and his team plan to describe the biology of the parrot's genetic code they sequenced in more detail in an upcoming paper.

Jarvis added that as more scientists use the hybrid sequencing approach, they could possibly decode complex, elusive genes linked to how cancer cells develop and to the sequences that control other brain functions.

###

Citation: Hybrid error correction and de novo assembly of single-molecule sequencing reads. Koren. S., et. al. Nature Biotechnology. Published online July 1, 2012. DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2280.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

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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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/du-dsf070212.php

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Falling lizards use tail for mid-air twist, inspiring lizard-like 'RightingBot'

ScienceDaily (July 1, 2012) ? Lizards, just like cats, have a knack for turning right side up and landing on their feet when they fall. But how do they do it? Unlike cats, which twist and bend their torsos to turn upright, lizards swing their large tails one way to rotate their body the other, according to a recent study that will be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on 29th June in Salzburg, Austria. A lizard-inspired robot, called 'RightingBot', replicates the feat.

This work, carried out by Ardian Jusufi, Robert Full and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, explains how large-tailed animals can turn themselves right side up while falling through the air. It could also help engineers to design air- or land-based robots with better stability.

"It is not immediately obvious which mechanism an animal will use to accomplish aerial righting and recover from falling in an upside-down posture. Depending on body size, morphology and mass distribution there are multiple strategies for animals to execute this behavior," said Ardian Jusufi, lead author of the study.

Lizards in their natural environment encounter various situations where they could fall. For instance, they could fall while fighting over territory, seeking food, or even mating. To avoid injuries, they must have a way to turn themselves during a fall to land safely on their feet.

For over a century, people have been studying if and how cats and other mammals right themselves when they fall. Other animals like lizards, which have different body plans and probably use different strategies, have been largely unexplored.

The researchers used high-speed videography to dissect the motion of two common lizards -- the flat-tailed house gecko and green anole -- as they fall, starting upside down. Watching as the lizards righted themselves in mid-air before alighting on extended legs, the researchers discovered that both lizards swing their tails in one direction, causing their bodies to turn in the other.

The team also compared the righting movement of the two lizards, which have similar body sizes but different tail lengths and inertial properties. The gecko, with its shorter tail, has to swing its tail further to the side to right itself, making a larger angle relative to its body. By contrast, relatively smaller movements of the anole tail, which is twice as long, are enough to reorient its body.

"A comparative approach provides useful insights in the study of aerial righting responses and could be beneficial to the design of robots that navigate complex environments," said Ardian Jusufi.

For the study, Jusufi and his colleagues developed a three-dimensional mathematical model to test their understanding of the lizards' righting movement.

To further test the mathematical model's predictions the team then built a simple robot. 'RightingBot' consists of just two parts: a body joined to a tail. Despite its simple design, RightingBot rights itself in mid-air with a swing of its tail just like the lizards that inspired it, showing how useful a tail can be for that purpose.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120701191641.htm

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