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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Christopher Nolan Reportedly Offered 'Interstellar' Lead To Matthew McConaughey
As with all of the Christopher Nolan's movies, information about his next project, the mysterious time travel adventure, "Interstellar," has slowly begun to leak out. Deadline is reporting that the secretive director has offered the lead role of Cooper to Matthew McConaughey. The part, if accepted, would only cap off an incredible renaissance for the [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/03/29/christopher-nolan-interstellar-matthew-mcconaughey/
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Social Media Welcome To Reality Online | Pat Selby Coaching Blog
Although other individuals might feel you are basically enjoying the a number of aspects of social networking, the truth of your interest may possibly most likely be tinged with a enterprise concentrate.
What that doesnt imply is that you post merely to leave a traceab?
The use of social media encompasses a broad range of on the web media varieties. Even though some could only assume of a social network like MySpace there are in fact numerous social media formats that include substantial advertising and marketing potential for on the internet company.
Even though others may possibly feel you are basically enjoying the several elements of social networking, the truth of your interest might most likely be tinged with a organization focus.
What that doesnt imply is that you post basically to leave a traceable link back to your organization website. Those who go to any social media web site see via posts that are overtly geared toward marketing and advertising. In numerous situations social media customers view this as spam even if the social network owners do not. In the finish, you can lose credibility of you dont function as a meaningful contributor in a social media atmosphere.
Social media can be presented in a lot of various forms. Lets take a peak at a couple of of them.
YouTube and other comparable video websites These videos can be funny, severe, off the cuff and often political in nature. You can show your business in a humorous light and enable people to be curious about you and your company.
MySpace and other social networks This form of social media is common simply because it draws with each other a number of components of social marketing and tends to make them accessible to the masses of folks that might view social networking as an on the internet version of reality television.
Blogs This is a form of social media if only because it does permit interactive exchanges in between the blogger and the reader.
Forums This can allow you to have an person voice willing to talk about subjects of interest to the majority. As with all social media you can give a link to your web site. If you are viewed as a trusted source you will likely find forum members following you to your site to discover more.
Podcasting This is an audio stream that can enable a visitor to hear a private message from you. This can have a pronounced impact in social advertising.
This isnt an exhaustive list, but it does offer something for you to take into account as an addition to other advertising and marketing tactics you might have in spot. Social media makes it possible for you to take your message to the people and have enjoyable while you share your message.
I cant pressure adequate how important it is to be real. The entire Web community has a low tolerance for supposed spam so make certain you dont use social media as merely an additional type of on the internet advertising.
learn more here social media strategy
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Source: http://patselby.com/blog/social-media-welcome-to-reality-online/
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
To Hold Senate Majority, Democrats Turning to Moderates
When Ashley Judd announced she wasn?t running for the Senate, Republicans greeted the news with glee, sending out a list of 10 other Democratic recruits uninterested in running against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.?But privately, leading Democratic officials were also cheering. Most viewed the liberal actress?s decision as good news for their chances in Kentucky, allowing a more-moderate candidate, such as Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, to run instead.
The efforts to woo a moderate Democrat to defeat McConnell are part of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee?s plans to compete in the most inhospitable territory for Democrats -- for open seats in Georgia, South Dakota, West Virginia, and?possibly, even?in Kentucky against the powerful and well-funded Senate minority leader. Facing a challenging political landscape in 2014, the party is close to landing credible candidates in all of those states.
The DSCC doesn?t divulge details about its recruitment strategy, arguing that many of the media reports about its preferred candidates are hogwash. But it?s clear that, in the spirit of former Chairman Chuck Schumer, it is playing an active role behind-the-scenes to ensure that electable Democrats emerge as nominees.
Already the committee is boasting that Georgia is their best pickup opportunity; the field of Republican candidates there for the seat of retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss currently looks underwhelming. Moderate Rep. John Barrow, one of the few Democrats who could put the seat in play, now sounds as open as ever to running.
In West Virginia, party officials are excited about the looming candidacy of lawyer Nick Preservati, a first-time candidate who is planning to distance himself from national Democratic positions on energy and run in the mold of popular Sen. Joe Manchin. Preservati has family ties to the coal industry, which could defang attacks from Republicans eager to tie the nominee to the White House?s environmental regulations.
And in South Dakota, party officials are working to avoid a potential primary between two well-known Democrats: U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson, the son of Sen. Tim Johnson, and former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who proved her bipartisan appeal, winning statewide elections to the House from 2004 to 2010. The committee won?t talk about what it?s doing, but South Dakota Democratic Party Chairman Ben Nesselhuf saidhe expects the party to coalesce behind one Democrat and avoid a messy primary.
?It?s [finding] a candidate who?s in line with their state and will do what?s best for the people of their state,? said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Justin Barasky. ?The main point is that Democrats know how to win in red states.?
To be sure, Democrats start out as underdogs in all four of these red-state races and may end up struggling to compete in any of them. But given that Republicans need to net six Senate seats to take the majority, even one upset victory behind enemy lines would be crucial.
That?s what made the prospect of the party rallying behind Judd so at odds with the committee?s strategy.?The DSCC was publicly noncommittal about her potential candidacy, even after meeting with her and without any other candidates actively looking to run.?In the run-up to the 2012 election, the committee never hesitated to telegraph its support for favored candidates, even if they faced the prospect of a primary. And only after Judd announced she wasn't running before the committee released a radio ad blasting McConnell -- a signal they expect to aggressively contest the race, but with Grimes or a moderate candidate better suited to the Kentucky electorate.
The Democratic activity in deeply conservative states stands in contrast, at least for now, to the lack of GOP movement against three Democratic senators in battleground states. Sens. Al Franken of Minnesota, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Mark Udall of Colorado have no announced Republican opponents ? even though all represent states where Obama won less than 53 percent of the vote in 2012.
"The DSCC is getting used to having tough cycles in terms of the map," Barasky said, "but if you look at the math, the path to six for [Republicans] is daunting."?
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hold-senate-majority-democrats-turning-moderates-101122083--politics.html
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Bee deaths stir up renewed buzz
From 2012: Honeybees may be victims of widely used insecticides. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
This past winter has been exceptionally rough for honeybees ??and although it's too early to say exactly why, the usual suspects range from pesticides that appear to cause memory loss to pests that got an exceptionally early start last spring.
Friday marked the start of an annual survey that asks beekeepers to report how many bees they lost over the winter, conducted by the Bee Informed Partnership, the Apiary Inspectors of America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The advance word is that the results will be brutal.??The New York Times, for example, quoted beekeepers as saying the losses reached levels of 40 to 50 percent?? which would be double the average reported last year.
One beekeeper in Montana was quoted as saying that his bees seemed health last spring, but in September, "they started to fall on their face, to die like crazy."
Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland who is one of the leaders of the survey team, said he can't predict what the past winter's average loss figure will be. The beekeepers' reports are being solicited online for the next two weeks, and the figures are due for release on May 7.
"What I can say is, when we were in California this year, the strength of the colonies that were there was significantly lower than it was in previous years," vanEngelsdorp told NBC News.?
Pesticides at issue
That's consistent with a mysterious ailment known as colony collapse disorder, which has stirred scientists' concern for the past decade. The malady almost certainly due to combination of factors ??including the Varroa mite, a single-celled parasite known as Nosema, several varieties of viruses, and pesticides. Researchers point to one particular class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, as a prime suspect.
Neonicotinoid-based pesticides are commonly applied as a coating on corn seeds, but the chemicals can persist in the environment. Although they have low toxicity for mammals, they've been found to have a significant neurotoxic effect on insects, including bees. Several European countries have banned neonicotinoids, the European Union has been looking at a wider ban, and the Environmental Protection Agency is considering new limitations as well. Just last week, a lawsuit called on the EPA to suspend the use of two types of neonicotinoids immediately.
Two recently published studies add to the concern: This week, researchers report in Nature Communications that neonicotinoids block the part of a bee's brain that associates scents with foods. They suggest that without that functionality, the bees effectively forget that floral scents mean food is nearby, and thus die off before they can pollinate. A study published in January in the Journal of Experimental Biology found a similar link to problems with scent-related learning and memory.
Mild winter, dry summer
Although neonicotinoids are currently front and center in the debate over colony collapse disorder, they're not necessarily the primary reason for this winter's dramatic dip in bee colonies.
VanEngelsdorp noted that the winter of 2011-2012 was easy on the bees: Losses amounted to just 21.9 percent, compared with a 2006-2011 average of 33 percent. However, the mild winter was kind to the bees' pests as well. VanEngelsdorp speculated that Varroa mites may have gained an early foothold in the hives last spring. By the time beekeepers started their treatments on the usual schedule, it was too late to keep the mites from weakening the colonies. That would help explain why the past winter's losses were worse than usual.
Scott Bauer / USDA via AP
A worker bee carries a Varroa mite, visible in this close-up view.
California beekeeper Randy Oliver, who discusses industry trends on the Scientific Beekeeping blog, said the past summer's drought was also a factor: "When there's a drought, the bees are in poor shape with the food," he told NBC News. He said he and other beekeepers predicted that there'd be heavy winter losses last July, when the scale of the drought became clear.
Heavy losses are bad news, and if bee colonies are becoming progressively weaker, that's worse news. It's not just because of the honey: The Department of Agriculture says that bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value each year. A bee scarcity increases costs for the farmers who need them for pollination, and that could lead to higher food prices. But Oliver said it's important to keep a sense of perspective about the bad news.
"The situation with the bees is not dire," he said. "The bees are doing OK. There's no danger that the bees will go extinct. ... That's just not true."
More about bees:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Schoolboy Q Jokes And Bullies His Way Through New York Show
Black Hippy MC gives fans a taste of Oxymoron at two sold-out shows Thursday night.
By Rob Markman
ScHoolboy Q
Photo: Getty Images
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704573/schoolboy-q-new-york-show.jhtml
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'Most Threatened' Tribe Sees No Relief from Illegal Loggers
A deadline to remove illegal loggers and settlers from the lands of one of the most threatened tribes on Earth appears poised to pass without action in Brazil.
The Aw?, a tribe of about 450, have won multiple legal battles granting them the rights to their territory, which are also guaranteed in the Brazilian constitution. But enforcement of those rights has been lacking, with reports of illegal logging camps operating only 3 miles (5 kilometers) from one Aw? settlement.
"It's a complete joke, really," said Sarah Shenker, a Brazilian campaigner for Survival International, a group that advocates for the rights of indigenous people.
A judge, in a declaration published in March 2012, ordered the eviction of illegal loggers, settlers and ranchers from Aw? land within a year. Even with the March 31 deadline approaching, no one has been removed.
Threatened life
The Aw? are nomadic hunter-gatherers and one of many indigenous groups in Brazil. Survival International has dubbed them "the most threatened tribe in the world," because their land is being rapidly deforested. One territory, the Aw? Indigenous Territory, has been stripped of 30 percent of its tree cover, Shenker told LiveScience. The territory's total area is about 463 square miles (120,000 hectares). [The Aw? Album: Faces of a Threatened Tribe]
"Last time I was with the Aw?, I was going to their community and was in a car with people from the indigenous affairs department, FUNAI, and we saw an illegal logging truck coming out of the territory loaded with wood," Shenker said. "But there was nothing FUNAI could do."
The illegal logging occurs with no oversight, Shenker said, and thus no regulations requiring sustainable practices.
The Aw? also share several other territories with other indigenous tribes. Whereas many Aw? are in contact with non-indigenous people and the Brazilian authorities, an estimated 100 or so individuals are uncontacted, meaning they don't interact with outsiders. Uncontacted Aw? are at particular risk from illegal settlers, Shenker said.
"They don't have immunity to common diseases like a cold or a flu, which could kill them," she said.
FUNAI recently announced that it would launch three expeditions to areas where uncontacted Aw? roam to look for signs of the group's safety. The agency has not yet issued reports on those efforts.
Eviction notice
In 2011, a Brazilian judge ruled that illegal settlers had to leave Aw? lands. The order, published in March 2012, gave Brazil's indigenous affairs department (FUNAI), a year to evict the invaders.
So far, FUNAI has built one base camp on the edge of Aw? territory from which to launch operations, Shenker said. But the agency says it needs two more base camps ? not to mention manpower. FUNAI relies on local police and cooperation from Brazil's environmental ministry to make evictions happen. That cooperation has yet to be seen, Shenker said.
"The Aw? are just waiting and hearing the chainsaws on the land day and night, and the government hasn't gotten its act together yet," she said. [The Aw? Speak: Interviews with the Tribe]
If FUNAI fails to meet the March 31 deadline, which now seems certain, the agency is theoretically required to pay a daily fine until the order is met. But in practice, these fines are almost never paid, Shenker said.
Survival International plans to put more pressure on the Brazilian government to enforce the evictions through public letter-writing campaigns to the Ministry of Justice. The group has also launched an awareness-raising effort via their website.
"We're really at a crucial turning point, because if nothing is done, the Aw? are really running out of time," Shenker said.
Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter?and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/most-threatened-tribe-sees-no-relief-illegal-loggers-184914397.html
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The truth behind N. Korea's threats
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Across North Korea, soldiers are gearing up for battle and shrouding their jeeps and vans with camouflage netting. Newly painted signboards and posters call for "death to the U.S. imperialists" and urge the people to fight with "arms, not words."
But even as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is issuing midnight battle cries to his generals to ready their rockets, he and his million-man army know full well that a successful missile strike on U.S. targets would be suicide for the outnumbered, out-powered North Korean regime.
Despite the hastening drumbeat of warfare, none of the key players in the region wants or expects another Korean War ? not even the North Koreans.
But by seemingly bringing the region to the very brink of conflict with threats and provocations, Pyongyang is aiming to draw attention to the tenuousness of the armistice designed to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula, a truce North Korea recently announced it would no longer honor as it warned that war could break out at any time.
It's all part of a plan to force Washington to the negotiating table, pressure the new president in Seoul to change policy on North Korea, and build unity at home ? without triggering a full-blown war if all goes well.
In July, it will be 60 years since North Korea and China signed an armistice with the U.S. and the United Nations to bring an end to three years of fighting that cost millions of lives. The designated Demilitarized Zone has evolved into the most heavily guarded border in the world.
It was never intended to be a permanent border. But six decades later, North and South remain divided, with Pyongyang feeling abandoned by the South Koreans in the quest for reunification and threatened by the Americans.
North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans ... more? North Korean army officers punch the air as they chant slogans during a rally at Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea, Friday, March 29, 2013. Tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for the mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support of their leader Kim Jong Un's call to arms. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin) less? In that time, South Korea has blossomed from a poor, agrarian nation of peasants into the world's 15th largest economy while North Korea is struggling to find a way out of a Cold War chasm that has left it with a per capita income on par with sub-Saharan Africa.The Chinese troops who fought alongside the North Koreans have long since left. But 28,500 American troops are still stationed in South Korea and 50,000 more are in nearby Japan. For weeks, the U.S. and South Korea have been showing off their military might with a series of joint exercises that Pyongyang sees a rehearsal for invasion.
On Thursday, the U.S. military confirmed that those drills included two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers that can unload the U.S. Air Force's largest conventional bomb ? a 30,000-pound super bunker buster ? powerful enough to destroy North Korea's web of underground military tunnels.
It was a flexing of military muscle by Washington, perhaps aimed not only at Pyongyang but at Beijing as well.
In Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un reacted swiftly, calling an emergency meeting of army generals and ordering them to be prepared to strike if the U.S. actions continue. A photo distributed by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency showed Kim in a military operations room with maps detailing a "strike plan" behind him in a very public show of supposedly sensitive military strategy.
North Korea cites the U.S. military threat as a key reason behind its need to build nuclear weapons, and has poured a huge chunk of its small national budget into defense, science and technology. In December, scientists launched a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket using technology that could easily be converted for missiles; in February, they tested an underground nuclear device as part of a mission to build a bomb they can load on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.
However, what North Korea really wants is legitimacy in the eyes of the U.S. ? and a peace treaty. Pyongyang wants U.S. troops off Korean soil, and the bombs and rockets are more of an expensive, dangerous safety blanket than real firepower. They are the only real playing card North Korea has left, and the bait they hope will bring the Americans to the negotiating table.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said North Korea's "bellicose rhetoric" would only deepen its international isolation, and that the U.S. has both the capability and willingness to defend its interests in the region.
Narushige Michishita, director of the Security and International Studies Program at Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, isn't convinced North Korea is capable of attacking Guam, Hawaii or the U.S. mainland. He says Pyongyang hasn't successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.
But its medium-range Rodong missiles, with a range of about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers), are "operational and credible" and could reach U.S. bases in Japan, he says.
More likely than such a strike, however, is a smaller-scale incident, perhaps off the Koreas' western coast, that would not provoke the Americans to unleash their considerable firepower. For years, the waters off the west coast have been a battleground for naval skirmishes between the two Koreas because the North has never recognized the maritime border drawn unilaterally by the U.N.
As threatening as Kim's call to arms may sound, its main target audience may be the masses at home in North Korea.
For months, the masterminds of North Korean propaganda have pinpointed this year's milestone Korean War anniversary as a prime time to play up Kim's military credibility as well as to push for a peace treaty. By creating the impression that a U.S. attack is imminent, the regime can foster a sense of national unity and encourage the people to rally around their new leader.
Inside Pyongyang, much of the military rhetoric feels like theatrics. It's not unusual to see people toting rifles in North Korea, where soldiers and checkpoints are a fixture in the heavily militarized society. But more often than not in downtown Pyongyang, the rifle stashed in a rucksack is a prop and the "soldier" is a dancer, one of the many performers rehearsing for a Korean War-themed extravaganza set to debut later this year.
More than 100,000 soldiers, students and ordinary workers were summoned Friday to Kim Il Sung Square in downtown Pyongyang to pump their fists in support of North Korea's commander in chief. But elsewhere, it was business as usual at restaurants and shops, and farms and factories, where the workers have heard it all before.
"Tensions rise almost every year around the time the U.S.-South Korean drills take place, but as soon as those drills end, things go back to normal and people put those tensions behind them quite quickly," said Sung Hyun-sang, the South Korean president of a clothing maker operating in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. "I think and hope that this time won't be different."
And in a telling sign that even the North Koreans don't expect war, the national airline, Air Koryo, is adding flights to its spring lineup and preparing to host the scores of tourists they expect to flock to Pyongyang despite the threats issuing forth from the Supreme Command.
War or no war, it seems Pyongyang remains open for business.
___
Lee is chief of AP's bureaus in Pyongyang, North Korea, and Seoul, South Korea. She can be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean. Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-nkorea-threat-may-more-bark-bite-132942749.html
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Friday, March 29, 2013
Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club v Burgher Recreation Club
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Premier League Tournament, Group A: Sri Lanka Air Force Sports Club v Burgher Recreation Club at Colombo (Riffle), Mar 30-Apr 1, 2013 Tweet
Source: http://www.freecricket.tv/2013/03/29/sri-lanka-air-force-sports-club-v-burgher-recreation-club-2/
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Thursday, March 28, 2013
EBay targets Gross Merchandise Value of $110 billion in 2015
March 28 (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy, playing for the first time since losing his world number one ranking earlier this week, got off to a shaky start at the Houston Open on Thursday where he dropped three shots over his opening eight holes. The 23-year-old Northern Irishman, who was replaced atop the world rankings by Tiger Woods this week, struggled to find his rhythm on an ideal day for low scoring at the Redstone Golf Club in Humble, Texas. He bogeyed the par-four second hole and made a double-bogey seven on the eighth hole to limp to the turn at three-over. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ebay-targets-gross-merchandise-value-110-billion-2015-195151702--sector.html
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Sea hares outsmart peckish lobsters with sticky opaline
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 27-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Nicola Stead
nicola.stead@biologists.com
44-012-234-25525
The Company of Biologists
Sea hares are not the favourite food choice of many marine inhabitants, and it's easy to see why when you find out about the chemical weapons they employ when provoked namely, two unpalatable secretions, ink and opaline, which they squirt at unsuspecting peckish predators. However, while much is known about the consequences of purple ink secretion, how the whitish and viscous opaline outsmarts a potential predator remains unknown. Charles Derby from Georgia State University, USA, wondered whether opaline could decrease the activity of a predator's sensory system. Along with his colleagues Tiffany Love-Chezem and Juan Aggio, he set out to test the effect of opaline on spiny lobsters, which occasionally try to snack on sea hares. The investigating trio find that it is opaline's sticky nature, rather than the chemicals present in the opaline, that is responsible for plugging their sense of smell and published their results in The Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org.
To begin, they extracted the water-soluble fraction of opaline, and although this lacks the amino acids and other chemical attractants that make up opaline, it is nonetheless just as sticky and possesses the physical properties of opaline. The team then painted this sticky, water-soluble fraction onto the tips of the lobsters' antennules, which act as the lobster's 'nose' and are important for motivation and ability to feed upon smelling a delicious treat. The trio then presented them with tasty smelling 'shrimp juice' and measured electrical activity in both chemosensory and motor neurons. Unlike lobsters with clean, gunk-free antennules, the shrimp juice failed to whet the appetite of opaline-treated lobsters, with the response of chemosensory and motor neurons being significantly reduced.
The team next wondered whether the amino acids present in opaline could also dampen neuronal activity. Mixing together the five most prominent amino acids found in opaline, they again painted the antennules and tempted the lobsters with the scent of shrimp juice. This time, however, the neurons fired robustly in reaction to the delicious shrimpy aroma. When the amino acids were mixed with the sticky substance carboxymethylcellulose, the neuron reactions were again inhibited. Furthermore, carboxymethylcellulose alone also stopped neurons firing. So, it seems that stickiness is the key to blocking neurons and allowing the sea hare to escape as the lobster preens and cleans itself of the gungy opaline.
###
IF REPORTING ON THIS STORY, PLEASE MENTION THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AS THE SOURCE AND, IF REPORTING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A LINK TO: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/8/1364.abstract
REFERENCE: Love-Chezem, T., Aggio, J. F. and Derby, C. D. (2013). Defense through sensory inactivation: sea hare ink reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food odors. J. Exp. Biol. 216, 1364-1372. .
This article is posted on this site to give advance access to other authorised media who may wish to report on this story. Full attribution is required, and if reporting online a link to jeb.biologists.com is also required. The story posted here is COPYRIGHTED. Therefore advance permission is required before any and every reproduction of each article in full. PLEASE CONTACT permissions@biologists.com
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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.
Public release date: 27-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Nicola Stead
nicola.stead@biologists.com
44-012-234-25525
The Company of Biologists
Sea hares are not the favourite food choice of many marine inhabitants, and it's easy to see why when you find out about the chemical weapons they employ when provoked namely, two unpalatable secretions, ink and opaline, which they squirt at unsuspecting peckish predators. However, while much is known about the consequences of purple ink secretion, how the whitish and viscous opaline outsmarts a potential predator remains unknown. Charles Derby from Georgia State University, USA, wondered whether opaline could decrease the activity of a predator's sensory system. Along with his colleagues Tiffany Love-Chezem and Juan Aggio, he set out to test the effect of opaline on spiny lobsters, which occasionally try to snack on sea hares. The investigating trio find that it is opaline's sticky nature, rather than the chemicals present in the opaline, that is responsible for plugging their sense of smell and published their results in The Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org.
To begin, they extracted the water-soluble fraction of opaline, and although this lacks the amino acids and other chemical attractants that make up opaline, it is nonetheless just as sticky and possesses the physical properties of opaline. The team then painted this sticky, water-soluble fraction onto the tips of the lobsters' antennules, which act as the lobster's 'nose' and are important for motivation and ability to feed upon smelling a delicious treat. The trio then presented them with tasty smelling 'shrimp juice' and measured electrical activity in both chemosensory and motor neurons. Unlike lobsters with clean, gunk-free antennules, the shrimp juice failed to whet the appetite of opaline-treated lobsters, with the response of chemosensory and motor neurons being significantly reduced.
The team next wondered whether the amino acids present in opaline could also dampen neuronal activity. Mixing together the five most prominent amino acids found in opaline, they again painted the antennules and tempted the lobsters with the scent of shrimp juice. This time, however, the neurons fired robustly in reaction to the delicious shrimpy aroma. When the amino acids were mixed with the sticky substance carboxymethylcellulose, the neuron reactions were again inhibited. Furthermore, carboxymethylcellulose alone also stopped neurons firing. So, it seems that stickiness is the key to blocking neurons and allowing the sea hare to escape as the lobster preens and cleans itself of the gungy opaline.
###
IF REPORTING ON THIS STORY, PLEASE MENTION THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AS THE SOURCE AND, IF REPORTING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A LINK TO: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/8/1364.abstract
REFERENCE: Love-Chezem, T., Aggio, J. F. and Derby, C. D. (2013). Defense through sensory inactivation: sea hare ink reduces sensory and motor responses of spiny lobsters to food odors. J. Exp. Biol. 216, 1364-1372. .
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/tcob-sho032013.php
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Hurley Town Board puts off casino gambling vote - DailyFreeman.com
HURLEY ? The Town Board has delayed a vote to support siting a casino in Wawarsing until the developer can provide a presentation.
A resolution to endorse putting a casino on the former Nevele resort property was tabled during a meeting Tuesday, when board members said they were reluctant to support having a project in another town that they wouldn?t want in their own.
?There are some things in this that just didn?t sit that well with me,? Councilwoman Janet Briggs said. ?I?m not sure I would appreciate Wawarsing saying we?d love this in our county but only if it was in Hurley.?
The request for support came from Michael Treanor, chief executive officer for resort owner Claremont Partners Limited, which is seeking to convert the former Nevele resort into a 452-room, 3.5 million-square-foot casino if state lawmakers designate the site for one of up to seven gaming facilities.
Hurley Town Supervisor Gary Bellows said developers are seeking to have the facility, which closed in 2009 and was subject to bankruptcy proceedings last year, to become operational if a state proposition allowing non-tribal gambling is placed on ballots in November.
?I think the state requires that the facility be up and running four months, I believe it is,? Bellows said. ?I think at this point (state lawmakers) are looking at three (casinos) ... below Albany. They feel that one would happen in the New York City area, one would happen at Monticello, and possibly one other.?
Councilman John Dittus said he is opposed to casino gambling based on his experience as a police officer.
?From experiences in my other life when I was in law enforcement for 32 years I don?t think gambling is the solution to our economic woes in New York state,? Dittus said. ?I think the state took a look at things like getting an automobile plant built here, heavy industry, things like that. Gambling brings with it unsavory characters, other crime is connected to gambling, and I don?t think it?s good for our future if you have to resort to gambling to make money.?
Bellows said the resort would also have family attractions while keeping money from leaving the county for casino gambling in other areas.
?It is going to be more of a family resort,? he said. ?It?s going to have water parks and have a lot of other entertainment for families.
Source: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2013/03/27/news/doc51523a9699e0e000482390.txt
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Amazon reportedly increasing Kindle phone screen size in response to ?phablet? fever
By Brian Homewood March 28 (Reuters) - Swiss champions FC Basel, renowned for their youth development programme, face a constant battle to stop teenage players moving to English, Spanish and Italian clubs. President Bernhard Heusler told Reuters in an interview that parents often do not listen to the club when warned against taking their sons elsewhere. "We get enormous pressure from outside, including English clubs," said Heusler before adding Basel were powerless to stop their youngsters leaving before the age of 16. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-reportedly-increasing-kindle-phone-screen-size-response-204859764.html
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Researchers find novel way plants pass traits to next generation
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
New research explains how certain traits can pass down from one generation to the next ? at least in plants ? without following the accepted rules of genetics.
Scientists have shown that an enzyme in corn responsible for reading information from DNA can prompt unexpected changes in gene activity ? an example of epigenetics.
Epigenetics refers to modifications in the genome that don't directly affect DNA sequences. Though some evidence has suggested that epigenetic changes can bypass DNA's influence to carry on from one generation to the next, this is the first study to show that this epigenetic heritability can be subject to selective breeding.
Researchers bred 10 generations of corn and found that one particular gene's activity persisted from one generation to the next whether the enzyme was functioning or not ? meaning typical genetic behavior was not required for the gene's trait to come through.
And that, the scientists determined, was because the enzyme targets a tiny piece of DNA ? previously thought of as "junk DNA" ? that had jumped from one area of the genome to another, giving that little fragment power to unexpectedly turn on the gene.
The gene in question affects pigmentation in the corn plant. As a result of these experiments, the researchers were able to change yellow kernel corn to a blue kernel variety by compromising the activity of the enzyme in each male parent.
"This is the first example where somebody has been able to take an epigenetic source of variation and, through selective breeding, move it from an inactive state to an active state," said Jay Hollick, associate professor of molecular genetics at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study. "The gene changes its expression in an epigenetic fashion and it doesn't follow standard inheritance behaviors. Those two factors alone have pretty profound implications not only for breeding but also for evolution."
The study appears online in the journal The Plant Cell.
Plant breeders tend to expect to generate desired traits according to what is known as Mendelian principles of inheritance: Offspring receive one copy of genes from each parental plant, and the characteristics of the alleles, or alternative forms of genes, help predict which traits will show up in the next plant generation.
However, epigenetic variations that change the predictability of gene behavior have complicated those expectations.
"The breeding community searches for novel traits that will have commercial interest and they really don't care what the basis is as long as they can capture it and breed it. Epigenetic heritability throws a kink in the expectations, but our findings also provide an opportunity ? if they recognize the variation they're looking for is the result of epigenetics, they could use that to their advantage," said Hollick, also an investigator in Ohio State's centers for RNA Biology and Applied Plant Sciences.
"Just by knowing that this allele behaves in this epigenetic fashion, I can breed plants that either have full coloration or no coloration or anything in between, because I am manipulating epigenetic variation and not genetic variation. And color, of course, is only one trait that could be affected."
With a longtime specialization in the molecular basis for unexpected gene activity in plants, Hollick had zeroed in on an enzyme called RNA polymerase IV (Pol IV). Multiple types of RNA polymerases are responsible for setting gene expression in motion in all cells, and Pol IV is an enigmatic RNA polymerase that is known in plants to produce small RNA molecules.
Pol IV has puzzled scientists because despite its strong conservation in all plants, it appears to have no discernible impact on the development of Arabidopsis, a common model organism in plant biology. For example, when it is deleted from these plants, they show no signs of distress.
In corn, however, Hollick's lab had discovered previously that the absence of Pol IV creates clear problems in the plants, such as growing seeds in the tassel.
Hollick and colleagues observed that plants deficient in Pol IV also showed pigmentation in kernels of ears expected not to make any color at all ? meaning they were expected to be yellow.
"Since we knew the misplaced tassel-seed trait was due to misexpression of a gene, we hypothesized that this pigment trait might be due to a pigment regulator being expressed in a tissue where it normally is never expressed. Molecular analysis showed that that was in fact the case," Hollick said.
The researchers selected dark kernels and light kernels from multiple generations of plants and crossed the plants derived form these different kernel classes to create additional new generations of corn.
"We found that the ears developed from those plants had even more darkly colored kernels and fewer lightly colored kernels. We could segregate the extreme types and cross them together and get this continued intensification of the pigmentation over many generations," he said. "We generated more progeny that had increasing amounts of pigment. This is taking a gene that is genetically null, that doesn't have any function in this part of the plant, and turning it from a complete null to a completely dominant form that produces full coloration.
"Essentially we were breeding a novel trait, but not by selecting for any particular gene. We were just continually altering the epigenetic status of one of the two parental genomes every time."
This led the scientists to question why the affected alleles of the pigmentation gene would behave in this way. An investigation of the affected alleles revealed the nearby presence of a transposon, or transposable element: a tiny piece of DNA that has leapt from one area of the genome to another.
Because the sequence of some small RNA fragments that come from Pol IV's activity are identical to the sequence of these transposons, the finding made sense to the scientists.
"Now that we know that Pol IV is involved in regulating transposons, it's not surprising that genes that are near transposons are now regulated by Pol IV," Hollick said.
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Ohio State University: http://researchnews.osu.edu
Thanks to Ohio State University for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127473/Researchers_find_novel_way_plants_pass_traits_to_next_generation
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Cyprus capital controls could be lifted in a month
People wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
People wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
People wait outside a Coop bank branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Bank branches across the country were being replenished with cash, and are scheduled to open for six hours at noon (10:00 GMT). Systems were frozen pending the official noon opening. (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)
People wait outside a Coop Bank branch in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Philippos Christou)
A woman sweeps the ground while people wait outside a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country?s banks reopen Thursday - albeit with strict restrictions on transactions - after being closed due to the country?s acute financial crisis. Lines were starting to form outside banks Thursday morning ahead of the official opening for six hours at noon (1000 GMT). (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
People are served in a branch of Bank of Cyprus in Nicosia, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Banks in Cyprus reopened to customers for the first time in nearly two weeks Thursday, albeit with strict restrictions on transactions, after being closed to prevent people withdrawing all their savings during the country?s acute financial crisis. Large lines had formed outside the banks ahead of the opening of banks for six hours from noon. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? There were long lines of anxious people but no sign of trouble as banks in Cyprus opened Thursday for the first time in nearly two weeks, following an international bailout that sought to prevent the country from financial ruin.
The government has imposed a daily limit on how much people can withdraw to stop a run on its banks ? the first such action in the 14-year history of the euro currency. Cypriots took the measure in their stride, aware that with their economy teetering on the edge of collapse, any undue panic would make the situation worse.
"Everything has been paralyzed. Besides my business being already low, now no one thinks of buying flowers," said flower shop owner Christos Papamichael who was among about 30 people waiting patiently for bank doors to open.
"People think of anything (else) besides flowers, they've got other priorities. But now there's a half an hour delay and we're just waiting here."
The limits on transactions, have been imposed initially for seven days and are being reviewed daily. According to Central Bank assessments, the restrictions are to be fully lifted in a month, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said.
"Gradually, probably in a period of a month, or something according again to the estimates of the Central Bank and according to the developments, the restrictions will be fully lifted," he said.
"If there (are) withdrawals from the banks, they may happen, but let me tell you once again there will be no bank run."
Guards from private security firms reinforced police outside some ATMs and banks in the capital, Nicosia, but no problems controlling crowds was reported.
President Nicos Anastasiades expressed his "warm gratitude and deep appreciation towards the Cypriot people for the maturity and spirit of responsibility they have shown at a critical time for the stability of the Cypriot economy," a statement from his office said.
However, many Cypriots were left frustrated and confused by the closures and controls and concerned about the effect on their businesses and livelihoods.
"No matter how much information there was, things were changing all the time," said Costas Kyprianides, a grocery supplier in Nicosia.
Banks have been shut in Cyprus since March 16 to prevent people from draining their accounts as politicians scrambled to come up with a plan to allow the country to qualify for 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in international bailout loans for its stricken financial sector.
A deal was finally reached in Brussels with other euro countries and the International Monetary Fund early Monday. The country's second-largest bank, Laiki, is to be split up, with its healthy assets being absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus. Savers with more 100,000 euros ($129,000) in either Bank of Cyprus and Laiki will face big losses. At Laiki, those could reach as much as 80 percent of amounts above the 100,000 insured limit; those at Bank of Cyprus are expected to be much lower.
The capital controls include limiting daily cash withdrawals to 300 euros ($383) per person and limiting payments abroad to 5,000 euros ($6,400). No checks can be cashed, although they can be deposited.
Anyone leaving the country, whether Cypriot or a visitor, can only take up to 1,000 euros ($1,290) with them in cash.
The country's general accounting office said pensions and other social security payments, together with salaries for government employees, will be in bank accounts next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Many Cypriots were working out exactly what they could and couldn't do. Television talk shows hosted dial-ins with experts, with viewers' queries ranging from which bank they would repay loans to if their lender was being wound down, how they could pay tuition fees for children studying abroad and handle check payments. People wondered whether they would be able to access their salaries, many of which were due this week.
Some analysts are concerned that, if kept in place long, Cyprus's measures will go against the fundamental principle of the single currency: Free and easy movement of money around the euro's 17 members.
In a statement Thursday, The European Commission said EU member states could restrict financial transactions "in certain circumstances and under strict conditions on grounds of public policy or public security" but added that "the free movement of capital should be reinstated as soon as possible".
Not every account in Laiki and Bank of Cyprus will be hit with big losses. Deposits held by the central government, local authorities such as municipalities, universities and development projects being co-funded by the European Union will not face a so-called haircut. Constantinos Petrides, undersecretary to the president, said the measure was agreed between the Cypriot government and a delegation from the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission.
Government welfare and pension fund accounts in Laiki will be treated in the same way as those in the Bank of Cyprus, "thereby ensuring most of the deposits," Petrides added.
Some individuals and businesses, spotting that Cyprus's economy was in trouble and that a tax on deposits was being discussed, had moved their money out of Cyprus well before the banks closed their doors last week.
According to ECB figures, deposits in Cyprus' banks slipped 2.2 percent last month, to 46.36 billion euros ($59.36 billion), the lowest figure since May 2010 and down from a peak of 50.5 billion euros ($64.67 billion) in May 2012. The figure excludes deposits from other banks and the central government.
"I anticipated, not this to happen, but I anticipated issues last year, when Greece had a question of whether it will remain in euro and the consequences of that," said Athos Angelides, who runs a business importing and distributing hair salon products. "So luckily we transferred money in the middle of last year over to the UK."
The stock market, which has been closed since March 15, stayed shut. It will remain closed on Friday and Monday, when most of Europe is closed for the Easter celebrations. Cyprus follows the Orthodox calendar and does not celebrate Easter until May this year.
____
Elena Becatoros in Nicosia and David McHugh in Frankfurt contributed.
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Auburn celebrates National Poetry Month with community events ...
The City of Auburn and community organizations have coordinated a variety of events and performances throughout April to highlight the legacy and ongoing achievement of Auburn-area poets in celebration of National Poetry Month.
Dick Brugger, Auburn's poet laureate, and his daughter, Jessie Brugger, award-winning filmmaker (New York International Film Festival award for best short animated video), kick off the month-long lineup with A Poetry Animation Evening. The Bruggers share their talents through presentation and discussion at 7 p.m. April 4 at the Auburn Avenue Theater.
Moderated by Marjorie Rommell of the Northwest Renaissance Poets, the hour-long program will showcase several of Jessie's animated films, Dick's poetry and the projects created together in which the two art forms intersect.
The City of Auburn sponsors the free program.
Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is celebrated in April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets throughout the United States band together to honor poetry and its vital place in American culture.
======
COMMUNITY POETRY PROGRAMS
??Maple Valley Creative Arts Center
Maple Valley Black Diamond Road SE, 7 p.m. March 29.
Celebrate the release of Malorie Spreen's first book. Free.?nightowlpoetry.wordpress.com
? Striped Water Poets
Station Bistro, Sound Transit Plaza, 110 2nd St., No. 125, April 1, 7 p.m.
Poetry at Station Bistro: Open mic and special guests. April is the one-year anniversary of SWP's with the Bistro; lineup of six featured poets to celebrate. Sponsored by the Auburn Arts Commission, King County 4Culture, Striped Water Poets, NorthWest Renaissance, and The Station Bistro. www.auburnstationbistro.com
? Poetry Critique Circle
Auburn City Hall, 25 W. Main St., Tuesdays, April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 7-9 p.m.
? A Poetry Animation Evening
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave., April 4, 7 p.m.
Dick Brugger, Auburn's poet laureate and his daughter Jessie Brugger, award-winning filmmaker, perform. Free. Presented by the City of Auburn. jessiebrugger.net
? Northwest Renaissance Poetry
Wesley Homes, 32049 109th Place SE, April 6, 2 p.m.
Poetry reading by Marjorie Rommel and Lisa Schmitz
? Canterbury House
502 29th St. SE, Auburn, 10:30 a.m., April 10.
More featured readers from Striped Water Poets. Free.
? King County Library System/Friends of Algona-Pacific Library
255 Ellingson Road, April 25, 3:30 p.m. Teens are invited to express themselves by creating an iron-on poetry T-shirt to keep. Limit to the first 10.?Register at www.kcls.org or 253-833-3554.
? Poetry workshop with Michael Brouwer
Warren Building, Veterans Memorial Park, April 27, 1-4 pm
Find the power in your poetry.?To register ($15 advance/$20 at door) contact marjorie.rommel@gmail.com or 253-939-0571. matthewbrouwerpoet.com
? Poetry Performance: KUOW Personality Elizabeth Austen
Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave., April 30, 7 p.m. Free.?elizabethausten.wordpress.com
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ALSO: Every Tuesday, 7 p.m., Auburn City Hall, 25 W. Main St. Striped Water Poets, a poetry critique circle. Free.
Source: http://www.auburn-reporter.com/entertainment/200118271.html
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Discovery may allow scientists to make fuel from CO2 in the atmosphere
Mar. 26, 2013 ? Excess carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over are looking for new ways to generate power that leaves a smaller carbon footprint.
Now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found a way to transform the carbon dioxide trapped in the atmosphere into useful industrial products. Their discovery may soon lead to the creation of biofuels made directly from the carbon dioxide in the air that is responsible for trapping the sun's rays and raising global temperatures.
"Basically, what we have done is create a microorganism that does with carbon dioxide exactly what plants do-absorb it and generate something useful," said Michael Adams, member of UGA's Bioenergy Systems Research Institute, Georgia Power professor of biotechnology and Distinguished Research Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
During the process of photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to transform water and carbon dioxide into sugars that the plants use for energy, much like humans burn calories from food.
These sugars can be fermented into fuels like ethanol, but it has proven extraordinarily difficult to efficiently extract the sugars, which are locked away inside the plant's complex cell walls.
"What this discovery means is that we can remove plants as the middleman," said Adams, who is co-author of the study detailing their results published March 25 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We can take carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and turn it into useful products like fuels and chemicals without having to go through the inefficient process of growing plants and extracting sugars from biomass."
The process is made possible by a unique microorganism called Pyrococcus furiosus, or "rushing fireball," which thrives by feeding on carbohydrates in the super-heated ocean waters near geothermal vents. By manipulating the organism's genetic material, Adams and his colleagues created a kind of P. furiosus that is capable of feeding at much lower temperatures on carbon dioxide.
The research team then used hydrogen gas to create a chemical reaction in the microorganism that incorporates carbon dioxide into 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a common industrial chemical used to make acrylics and many other products.
With other genetic manipulations of this new strain of P. furiosus, Adams and his colleagues could create a version that generates a host of other useful industrial products, including fuel, from carbon dioxide.
When the fuel created through the P. furiosus process is burned, it releases the same amount of carbon dioxide used to create it, effectively making it carbon neutral, and a much cleaner alternative to gasoline, coal and oil.
"This is an important first step that has great promise as an efficient and cost-effective method of producing fuels," Adams said. "In the future we will refine the process and begin testing it on larger scales."
The research was supported by the Department of Energy as part of the Electrofuels Program of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy under Grant DE-AR0000081.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Georgia. The original article was written by James Hataway.
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Journal Reference:
- Matthew W. Keller, Gerrit J. Schut, Gina L. Lipscomb, Angeli L. Menon, Ifeyinwa J. Iwuchukwu, Therese T. Leuko, Michael P. Thorgersen, William J. Nixon, Aaron S. Hawkins, Robert M. Kelly, and Michael W. W. Adams. Exploiting microbial hyperthermophilicity to produce an industrial chemical, using hydrogen and carbon dioxide. PNAS, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1222607110
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China's "black clinics" flourish as government debates health reform
By Hui Li and Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - A one-room shack with a single, bare light bulb on a non-descript Beijing side street is 29-year-old Chinese migrant worker Zhang Xuefang's best recourse to medical care.
Not recognized as a Beijing resident, she does not qualify for cheaper healthcare at government hospitals, and her hometown is too far away to take advantage of medical subsidizes there.
Like millions of other migrant workers, Zhang, on whose labor China's economic boom depends, is forced into a seedy and unregulated world of back ally "black clinics" if she falls ill.
The issue highlights the two-tier nature of China's overburdened health care system and goes to the heart of a heated debate about how to reform the contentious "hukou" system of household registration, a cornerstone of government policy for decades which essentially legalizes discrimination between urban and rural residents.
The hukou system, which dates to 1958, has split China's 1.3 billion people along urban-rural lines, preventing many of the roughly 800 million Chinese who are registered as rural residents from settling in cities and enjoying basic urban welfare and services.
China's new government has vowed to change this divisive system with reforms aimed at sharing more equally the bounty of China's economic growth and consumption-led growth.
Newly-appointed Premier Li Keqiang vowed at his debut news conference earlier this month to press ahead with reforms to narrow China's urban-rural gap, including giving migrant labor more equal access to medical insurance.
No details have yet been announced, so black clinics will remain the affordable last resort for migrant workers.
"Health care insurance and other social insurances are closely linked to hukou. Providing better social insurance is, I believe, an incentive to reform hukou system", said Zhang Shuo, a senior Health Specialist with the World Bank's Beijing office.
"China's urbanization will be unprecedented in speed and scale," Zhang explained, "Portable social insurances is key to encourage labor migration, but it will take some time for a country as big as China."
DARK CORNER OF HEALTH SYSTEM
"Black clinics are the dark corner of China's medical system," said Jiao Zhiyong, a professor at Beijing's Capital University of Economics and Business.
"Migrant workers are their main patrons largely due to flaws in the health insurance system."
World Bank's Zhang also pointed out that China's health care insurance system is a fragmented one, mostly coordinated within counties. But migrant workers usually have to seek medical treatment outside their home counties.
The Beijing government has shut down about 1,000 black clinics a year since 2010, according to government figures.
Many, however, reopen nearby or at the same place only days after being closed.
While China has never published numbers for how many black clinics exist, every so often state media reports deaths at these unlicensed health centers.
In January, Chinese newspapers reported that a migrant worker from Fujian province died from a cardiac arrest hours after receiving an intravenous drip to relieve her cold symptoms in a black clinic in one of Beijing's gritty outer suburbs.
Migrant worker Zhang has seen the dangers of black clinics close up. On one occasion, out of fear that authorities might be nearing the illegal clinic, Zhang's doctor locked her inside the clinic, still hooked up to an intravenous drip, as he fled.
"We don't want to go to those places, knowing that the substandard hygienic conditions affect us, but we really can't afford big hospitals," said Zhang, who once paid 800 yuan, a quarter of her monthly salary, for treatment of a common cold at a government hospital in Beijing.
China has beefed up spending on health care reform with last year's overall expenditure at 719.9 billion yuan, a 12 percent increase from the previous year. Yet last year's figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security showed that only about 20 percent of migrant workers have health insurance.
"To build a country-wide healthcare reimbursement system is our goal, but there is still quite a long way to go," Hu Xiaoyi, vice minister of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security told reporters this month.
For those who are insured, reimbursement only comes after payment, and is often complicated by bureaucratic red tape, putting families at risk of bankruptcy when major health problems strike.
"Health insurance works locally, but when we go work in other places, only some provide health insurance, which still requires a lot of procedures. And each could take months and still wouldn't come through," Cao Yong, a migrant worker delegate to parliament, told state radio.
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