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Diseases
Apart from their hairless appearance, naked mole rats are known for several distinguishing characteristics: They have an unusually long life span for a rodent, and they seem to be protected from developing cancer. Now, researchers have pinpointed a natural substance found between the rodents’ tissues that may explain their cancer resistance. Understanding how this substance, known as hyaluronan, protects naked mole rats from developing cancerous tumors could lead to novel cancer-prevention techniques for humans, said study lead author Vera Gorbunova, [...]
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World
WASHINGTON – President Obama’s pledge to cut the United States’ nuclear arsenal by one-third is sending the wrong message to the global community, some Washington lawmakers said Wednesday. “Now is not the time to pursue further strategic nuclear force reductions,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said following Obama’s speech in Berlin, Germany. Inhofe was among several lawmakers who warned that cutting the country’s strategic nuclear arsenal by one-third would put America at a disadvantage against countries like Russia, North Korea and [...]
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Diseases
LONDON — A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in Saudi Arabia. More than 60 cases of what is now called MERS, including 38 deaths, have been recorded by the World Health Organization in the past year, mostly in Saudi Arabia. So far, illnesses haven’t spread as quickly as SARS did in 2003, ultimately triggering a global outbreak [...]
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Entertainment
James Gandolfini — who famously played Tony Soprano on “The Sopranos” — died earlier today in Italy … TMZ has learned. Gandolfini is believed to have suffered a heart attack. He was 51. Gandolfini was in Italy to attend the 59th Taormina Film Festival in Sicily — and he was scheduled to participate in a festival event this weekend with Italian director Gabriele Muccino. Gandolfini shot to fame playing a hitman in the 1993 hit “True Romance” … and quickly [...]
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Cars
NEW YORK – For the first time General Motors is the car company with the best quality, according to J.D. Power & Associates’ annual automotive survey released Wednesday. It was a significant accomplishment for a company whose questionable vehicle quality in the past was part of what put it on a path of steady market share declines, financial losses and eventually a 2009 bankruptcy and federal bailout. “This is a huge milestone, especially in light of the bankruptcy,” said Michelle [...]
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Games & Entertainment
Reacting to “feedback from the Xbox community,” Microsoft is appearing to reverse course and change two key components to policies for its new Xbox One video game console. All disc-based games can be played without ever connecting online, and the 24-hour connection requirement has been dropped, according to an update to a May post concerning questions about the new device, due to be released this fall. Additionally, there will be no limitations to using and sharing games, Don Mattrick, president [...]
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Travel & Tourism
Those vacationing at Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks this summer should make extra efforts to stay sanitary, the National Park Service urged Wednesday, after noting a spike in sicknesses among visitors so far. In a press release, the park service noted “greater than normal reports of gastrointestinal illness” among those visiting the park in northwestern Wyoming as well as areas in Montana outside the two parks. There also have been more than 100 suspected cases of norovirus — which [...]
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Finance
NEW YORK – Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke on Wednesday laid out his most specific plan yet for when the central bank will start easing up on its controversial stimulus program, which is pumping $85 billion a month into the economy. The Fed will start cutting back later this year and may stop entirely by the middle of 2014 if the economy continues to improve, Bernanke said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon. Earlier, the Fed unveiled a set [...]
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Web sites / Internet
“DuckDuckGo it.” The phrase doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily as “Google it,” but you could be hearing it a lot more in the days to come as the anonymous search engine DuckDuckGo attracts hordes of new users in the wake of the NSA snooping scandal. The lesser-known search site, which says it doesn’t store private user information, has seen a 33% jump in users since news broke two weeks ago that the U.S. government was asking Google [...]
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Technology
A draft spending bill from the House would drop funding for President Obama’s proposed asteroid retrieval project and steer funding back toward lunar exploration, according to a story on SpaceNews.com. “It is the policy of the United States that the development of capabilities and technologies necessary for human missions to lunar orbit, the surface of the moon, the surface of Mars and beyond shall be the goals of the Administration’s human spaceflight program,” the bill states. “The Administrator shall not [...]
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Health
While those of us in the healthy and whole food movements have always remained quite cautious and avoided artificial ingredients largely as a rule, Splenda has had a pretty good reputation in the public eye even if that’s because it’s primary competition were and are chemical sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin which are known to be highly toxic. (Side note: saccharin is the chemical Monsanto was originally founded upon to produce, and they were also the ones responsible for [...]
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Politics
A Republican senator blasted the Pentagon after it entered into a new helicopter contract with a Russian company which is supplying the Syrian regime — even as the U.S. moves to arm the Syrian opposition. The contract was announced Monday with Russian arms firm Rosoboronexport, for military helicopters that will go to Afghan security forces. The Pentagon argues the helicopters are the only option, but Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is adamant that the U.S. find an alternative considering the company’s [...]
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