Cancer sequencing initiative discovers mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumors

Cancer sequencing initiative discovers mutations tied to aggressive childhood brain tumors

Monday, January 30, 2012

Researchers studying a rare, lethal childhood tumor of the brainstem discovered that nearly 80 percent of the tumors have mutations in genes not previously tied to cancer. Early evidence suggests the alterations play a unique role in other aggressive pediatric brain tumors as well.

The findings from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ? Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP) offer important insight into a poorly understood tumor that kills more than 90 percent of patients within two years. The tumor, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), is found almost exclusively in children and accounts for 10 to 15 percent of pediatric tumors of the brain and central nervous system.

"We are hopeful that identifying these mutations will lead us to new selective therapeutic targets, which are particularly important since this tumor cannot be treated surgically and still lacks effective therapies," said Suzanne Baker, Ph.D., co-leader of the St. Jude Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program and a member of the St. Jude Department of Developmental Neurobiology. She is a corresponding author of the study published in the January 29 online edition of the scientific journal Nature Genetics.

DIPG is an extremely invasive tumor that occurs in the brainstem, which is at the base of the skull and controls such vital functions as breathing and heart rate. DIPG cannot be cured by surgery and is accurately diagnosed by non-invasive imaging. As a result, DIPG is rarely biopsied in the U.S. and little is known about it.

Cancer occurs when normal gene activity is disrupted, allowing for the unchecked cell growth and spread that makes cancer so lethal. In this study, investigators found 78 percent of the DIPG tumors had alterations in one of two genes that carry instructions for making proteins that play similar roles in packaging DNA inside cells. Both belong to the histone H3 family of proteins. DNA must be wrapped around histones so that it is compact enough to fit into the nucleus. The packaging of DNA by histones influences which genes are switched on or off, as well as the repair of mutations in DNA and the stability of DNA. Disruption of any of these processes can contribute to cancer.

Researchers said that the mutations seem unique to aggressive childhood brain tumors.

"It is amazing to see that this particular tumor type appears to be characterized by a molecular 'smoking gun' and that these mutations are unique to fast-growing pediatric cancers in the brain," said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and one of the study's corresponding authors. "This is exactly the type of result one hopes to find when studying the genomes of cancer patients."

The results are the latest from the PCGP, an ambitious three-year effort to sequence the complete normal and cancer genomes of 600 children with some of the most poorly understood and aggressive pediatric cancers. The human genome includes the complete set of instructions needed to assemble and sustain human life. The goal is to identify differences that explain why cancer develops, spreads and kills. Researchers believe the findings will provide the foundation for new tools to diagnose, treat or prevent the disease.

For this study, researchers sequenced the complete normal and cancer genomes of seven patients with DIPG. "The mutations were found at such high frequency in the cancer genomes of those seven patients that we immediately checked for the same alterations in a larger group of DIPGs," Baker said. When researchers sequenced all 16 of the related genes that make closely related variants of histone H3 proteins in an additional 43 DIPGs, they found many of the tumors contained the same mistakes in only two of these genes.

Of the 50 DIPG tumors included in this study, 60 percent had a single alteration in the makeup of the H3F3A gene. When the mutated gene was translated into a protein, the point mutation led to the substitution of methionine for lysine as the 27th amino acid in this variant of histone H3 protein. Another 18 percent of the DIPG patients carried the same mistake in a different gene, HIST1H3B.

Researchers are now working to understand how mutations in H3F3A and HIST1H3B impact cell function and contribute to cancer. Earlier research provides some clues. The lysine that is mutated is normally targeted by enzymes that attach other molecules to histone H3, influencing how it interacts with other proteins that regulate gene expression, Baker said. Mutations in the enzymes that target histone H3 have been identified in other cancers, but this is the first report showing a specific alteration of histones in cancer.

H3F3A and HIST1H3B were also mutated in other aggressive childhood brain tumors, glioblastoma, that develop outside the brain stem. Of 36 such tumors included in this study, 36 percent carried one of three distinct point mutations in the genes. The alterations included another single change in the makeup of H3F3A not found in DIPGs.

The histone H3 genes, however, were not mutated in any of the 252 other childhood tumors researchers checked for this study. The list included the brain tumors known as low-grade gliomas, medulloblastomas and ependymomas plus other cancers outside the brain and nervous system. The H3 changes have not been reported in any other cancers, including adult glioblastoma. "This suggests these particular mutations give a very important selective advantage, particularly in the developing brainstem and to a lesser degree in the developing brain, which leads to a terribly aggressive brain tumor in children, but not in adults," Baker said.

"This discovery would not have been possible without the unbiased approach taken by the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project," Baker said. "The mutations had not been reported in any other tumor, so we would not have searched for them in DIPGs. Yet the alterations clearly play an important role in generating this particular tumor."

###

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: http://www.stjude.org

Thanks to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117168/Cancer_sequencing_initiative_discovers_mutations_tied_to_aggressive_childhood_brain_tumors

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Champion of the Downtrodden Elizabeth Warren Helped Insurance ...

Oh this is rich. Elizabeth Warren, the self-appointed champion of the downtrodden and Massachusetts Senate candidate ? who couldn?t even get an unconstitutional recess appointment out of her man Obama ? made money helping an insurance company craft a defense plan against asbestosis claims.

One of the Harvard professor?s many well-com-pensated part-time gigs included consulting for Travelers Insurance. I know that it is hard to believe that on one hand, Democrats would be bashing an industry, and on the other hand they are making money from it. To be a Democrat is to be a hypocrite.

What did Lizzy do to earn $44,000 in compensation from the insurance company? She made it harder for claimants to collect. Warren helped establish the bankruptcy strategy for companies to avoid crushing lawsuits. In short, go bankrupt to avoid paying victims.

In court briefings, she supported the effort to protect Travelers Insurance from future lawsuits after agreeing to a $500 million settlement with asbestos plaintiffs.

That sort of destroys her image as consumer advocate, doesn?t it?

Read the whole thing. I?m not here to debate the merits of asbestosis claims, only to point out the utter hypocrisy of women (and men) like Elizabeth Warren. They laugh all the way to the bank as they bash their buddies in their quest to obtain more power. What?s so amazing is that many of those buddies of theirs continue funding them.

Oh, and don?t forget, Elizabeth Warren claims she?s just like you and me.

Tags: asbestosis, Elizabeth Warren, hypocrite, Scott Brown, Travelers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 1:18 am and is filed under 2012 Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Source: http://lonelyconservative.com/2012/01/champion-of-the-downtrodden-elizabeth-warren-helped-insurance-company-fight-asbestosis-claims/

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Afghan family guilty in 'honor' killings

KINGSTON, Ontario?? A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor."

The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast. First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

After the verdict was read, the three defendants again declared their innocence in the killings of sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar 17, and Geeti, 13, as well as Rona Amir Mohammad, 52, Shafia's childless first wife in a polygamous marriage.

Their bodies were found June 30, 2009, in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home to Montreal from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Prosecutors said the defendants allegedly killed the three teenage sisters because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online. Shafia's first wife was living with him and his second wife. The polygamous relationship, if revealed, could have resulted in their deportation.

The prosecution alleged it was a case of premeditated murder, staged to look like an accident after it was carried out. Prosecutors said the defendants drowned their victims elsewhere on the site, placed their bodies in the car and pushed it into the canal.

Defense lawyers said the deaths were accidental. They said the Nissan car accidentally plunged into the canal after the eldest daughter, Zainab, took it for a joy ride with her sisters and her father's first wife. Hamed said he watched the accident, although he didn't call police from the scene.

After the jury returned the verdicts, Mohammad Shafia, speaking through a translator, said, "We are not criminal, we are not murderer, we didn't commit the murder and this is unjust."

His weeping wife, Tooba, also declared the verdict unjust, saying, "I am not a murderer, and I am a mother, a mother."

Their son, Hamed, speaking in English said, "I did not drown my sisters anywhere."

But Judge Robert Maranger was unmoved, saying the evidence clearly supported their conviction for "the planned and deliberate murder of four members of your family."

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"It is difficult to conceive of a more despicable, more heinous crime ... the apparent reason behind these cold-blooded, shameful murders was that the four completely innocent victims offended your completely twisted concept of honor ... that has absolutely no place in any civilized society."

Outside court, prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis said the verdict is a reflection of Canadian values that he hopes will resonate.

"This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy and even visitors to Canada enjoy," Laarhuis said to cheers of approval from onlookers.

The family had left Afghanistan in 1992 and lived in Pakistan, Australia and Dubai before settling in Canada in 2007. Shafia, a wealthy businessman, married Yahya because his first wife could not have children.

The prosecution painted a picture of a household controlled by a domineering Shafia, with Hamed keeping his sisters in line and doling out discipline when his father was away on frequent business trips to Dubai.

The months leading up to the deaths were not happy ones in the Shafia household, according to evidence presented at trial. Zainab, the oldest daughter, was forbidden to attend school for a year because she had a young Pakistani-Canadian boyfriend, and she fled to a shelter, terrified of her father, the court was told.

The prosecution said her parents found condoms in Sahar's room as well as photos of her wearing short skirts and hugging her Christian boyfriend, a relationship she had kept secret. Geeti was becoming almost impossible to control: skipping school, failing classes, being sent home for wearing revealing clothes and stealing, while declaring to authority figures that she wanted to be placed in foster care, according to the prosecution.

Shafia's first wife wrote in a diary that her husband beat her and "made life a torture," while his second wife called her a servant.

The prosecution presented wire taps and cell phone records from the Shafia family in court to support their honor killing theory. The wiretaps, which capture Shafia spewing vitriol about his dead daughters, calling them treacherous and whores and invoking the devil to defecate on their graves, were a focal point of the trial.

"There can be no betrayal, no treachery, no violation more than this," Shafia said on one recording. "Even if they hoist me up onto the gallows ... nothing is more dear to me than my honor."

Defense lawyers argued that at no point in the intercepts do the accused say they drowned the victims.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46183299/ns/world_news-americas/

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Private investors near deal on Greek debt

Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves Maximos Mansion after a meeting with Greek Prime minister Lucas Papademos, Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, left, and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leave Maximos Mansion after a meeting Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Charles Dallara managing director of the Institute of International Finance arrives at Maximos Mansion for a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece and its private investors are close to a deal that will significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed ?130 billion bailout.

Negotiators for the investors announced the tentative agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week.

Under the agreement, the investors would take a hit of more than 60 percent on the ?206 billion of Greek debt they own.

Here's how it would work: private investors would receive new bonds whose face value is half of the existing bonds. The new bonds would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent (compared with an estimated 5 percent on the existing bonds).

Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least ?120 billion, the private investors' bonds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other eurozone countries, which could also lose value in the event of a Greek default.

The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, ?130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund, although there are other issues involved before Greece can get that aid. This would be Greece's second bailout. The EU and the IMF signed off on a ?110 billion aid package for Greece in May 2010, most of which has already been disbursed.

Greece faces a ?14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.

Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 200 percent of the country's economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade.

In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors ? the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank ? have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, austerity alone will not fix Greece's problem. The country must also find ways boost its economic output, which at the moment is shrinking.

If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.

The banks, insurance companies and other private holders of Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.

The main creditor negotiators will leave Greece on Sunday and will remain in close consultation with Greek and other authorities.

___

Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-28-Greece-Financial%20Crisis/id-434fcb5e2a774955b10933732c5aab47

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James Zogby: Bridging the Divide

ABU DHABI, UAE: I've just finished teaching a three week January term course at New York University's Abu Dhabi campus (NYUAD). I've had the great fortune to teach before at some wonderful schools across the U.S. But this, for me, was a special experience, the result of the unique mix of students who had been brought together in this one place.

The course I had been invited to teach was called "Bridging the Divide between the Arab World and the West". It was to be an examination of how the West and Arabs have interacted with each other in the past century, their mutual misperceptions, and the resultant and often tragic problems that have ensued, putting both sides at risk.

In the lead up to the start of the course, I had planned my lectures and prepared class exercises. The students would create, conduct, and analyze their own polls of U.S. and Arab attitudes and would develop their own class blog about the divide and the ways they experience it. On day one, I was set to begin and to proceed according to my plan, and then I met my students.

The class was made up of mostly first year students. There were sixteen in all - from twelve different countries on four continents! The range was extraordinary. Four were Arabs (one each from the UAE, Egypt, Libya, and a Palestinian from Lebanon - each with a fascinating story to tell). There were four Americans (from Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, and New Jersey). They were joined by colleagues from: the UK, Denmark, Bosnia, Kenya, India, Indonesia, and South Korea. Though different in so many ways, they were, for the most part, "cut from the same cloth", variations on a theme. They were bright and inquisitive, expressive and insightful, and open to learning from each other.

After interviewing each of the students on the first day, it became clear to me that while they were eager to learn about the place they were in, and the Arab World, in general, they also had a great deal to share about their own experiences in confronting the many "divides" that make up our modern world. My students from Columbus, Ohio and St. Paul, Minnesota, for example, wanted to tell about how their respective communities were dealing with the influx of large numbers of Somali refugees. The ethnic and religious divides that have shaped the modern histories of India, Indonesia, and Bosnia became subjects for conversation, as did the more recent tensions that have confronted Muslim immigrants to the UK, U.S. and Denmark.

Some of my American students shared the apprehension expressed by their parents and peers when they made known their choice to go to a school in the Arab World, while some of my Arab students told of similar reactions they received when they declared their intention to attend an American school.

We had much to talk and write about, and we did. What was so extraordinary was how supportive the students were of one another. Although NYUAD is only two years old, a new culture had been created in this remarkable place, itself an important learning experience. As I watched the students engage in conversation, or when I read their posts and their comments on their colleagues' posts, or when I saw them just mingling with one another in the cafeteria, it became clear what a remarkable thing was being done here.

There were times I felt as though this were a sort of Hogwart's Castle. And that these little wizards had been plucked from their respective worlds and brought together where their special skills could be developed before they were to be sent back home. But I came to realize that this wasn't the case at all. The students weren't magical, nor was the place. It was the opportunity that had been created for meeting and learning from each other that was the magic. It was the vision behind this place that had brought these few hundred very bright young men and women from every continent to learn together, that would create lessons that would last a lifetime.

The UAE will be bidding to host the World Expo in 2020. Their theme is "Connecting the World, Creating the Future". In many ways, this is being done across this young country every day, in business, in culture and the arts, and in the meetings of peoples in everyday life. This also describes the NYUAD experience--in every classroom and in every lunch table conversation. The students who are fortunate enough to be a part of this experience are being connected to the world in a very personal way and out of this experience a new generation of global leaders is being created. And because these students are being transformed by their encounters here, they will be better able to heal the many divides they face in our increasingly complex world.

I leave here enriched and invigorated by the time I spent with my students in this place.

?

Follow James Zogby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AAIUSA

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/bridging-the-divide_b_1239126.html

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Hawaii's proposed online tracking law comes under fire from ISPs, civil libertarians

There may be some trouble brewing in paradise, thanks to a seemingly draconian law currently under consideration in Hawaii's state legislature. If passed, H.B. 2288 would require all ISPs within the state to track and store information on their customers, including details on every website they visit, as well as their own names and addresses. The measure, introduced on Friday, also calls for this information to be recorded on each customer's digital file and stored for a full two years. Perhaps most troubling is the fact that the bill includes virtually no restrictions on how ISPs can use (read: "sell") this information, nor does it specify whether law enforcement authorities would need a court order to obtain a user's dossier from an ISP. And, because it applies to any firm that "provides access to the Internet," the law could conceivably be expanded to include not just service providers, but internet cafes, hotels or other businesses.

Democratic Representative John Mizuno is the lead sponsor of the bill, though his support already seems to be waning. Not long after H.B. 2288 was introduced, Republican Representative Kymberly Pine told CNET that she would be withdrawing her support for it, adding that her intent was not to track Hawaiian web surfing, but to simply protect "victims of crime." "We do not want to know where everyone goes on the Internet," Pine explained. "That's not our interest. We just want the ability for law enforcement to be able to capture the activities of crime." Pine went on to acknowledge that the proposal has come under fire from many civil libertarians and internet companies within the state, and that the measure will likely be revised. In retrospect, she said, the concept of storing personal information "was a little broad," and Hawaii's lawmakers "deserved" the criticism they received during today's hearing.

Hawaii's proposed online tracking law comes under fire from ISPs, civil libertarians originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/27/hawaiis-proposed-online-tracking-law-comes-under-fire-from-isps/

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Not A Bad Bundle Idea: ?The Sound Supply? Offers 10 Digital Music Albums For $15

Forgive me if you've seen this on Boing Boing yesterday already, but I'm always looking for interesting startups in the digital music space, and I think The Sound Supply's idea is, well, sound. Basically, The Sound Supply bundles 10 DRM-free digital music albums and lets you buy the lot online for a mere $15. According to the website, all participating bands and artists - including the wonderful Sophie Madeleine and Colour Revolt - agreed to collectively share their music this way.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ByUIRZ5nhPA/

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Gates Donates $750 Million to Global Fund

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The donation to the struggling fund was made as a promissory note intended to tide the fund over regular cash shortages.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=563e0c47a0090b9deb7da512b0b4d7e6

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Adele reigns Billboard chart in slow week (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? British singer Adele continued her reign atop the Billboard 200 album chart and the Hot 100 songs chart on Wednesday, in a week of low album sales and a lack of new releases, music industry analysts said.

Adele held onto the top spot after selling 95,000 copies last week, breaking yet another record as "21" became the first album since 1993 to reign the charts for 17 weeks.

Last week saw albums with sales lower than 20,000 copies a week entering the top ten chart for the first time in Nielsen SoundScan history, and this week all the albums in the No.6 to No. 10 spots sold less than 20,000 copies in the week.

Dave Bakula, senior vice-president of analytics for entertainment at Nielsen, said that while overall sales were still running strong, only down 1 percent from last week, the low figures were due to "a very, very quiet time of year," paired with a lack of new releases.

"The album industry as a whole still has better strength than there was last year. You've got that one record at the top with Adele that still drives people to buy nearly 100,000 copies a week and that provides a really great story," said Bakula.

"It would be absolutely essential for us to get some more depth of new releases out there, some more people in the stores," he said.

Country music singer Toby Keith, whose album "Clancy's Tavern" jumped from No. 22 to No. 8 this week, was unable to break the 20,000 sales mark, despite his album being priced for $4.99 at Target retail stores last week.

KIDZ BOP INTO NO. 2 SPOT

The sluggish market meant two new entries scored high debuts, with "Kidz Bop 21," a compilation of recent hits such as Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" but sung by children, at No. 2, and gospel singers James Fortune & FIYA's "Identity" landing at No. 7.

"A fun quirk of the charts is that if you pick the right time of year and the right week with the right kind of act, you could have your best week ever, because of a function of the calendar," said Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts at Billboard.com.

Caulfield said January is usually a quiet month and paired with general album sales in flux, "there's not a lot out there and therefore, no one is buying much of it."

All that might change next week with new releases from country singers Tim McGraw and Kellie Pickler, as well as the official "2012 Grammy Nominees" compilation, ahead of the Grammy Awards show on February 12.

Adele and "Kidz Bop 21" were followed by the Black Keys' "El Camino" and Drake's "Take Care" holding their positions at No. 3 and No. 4 respectively, while Rihanna's "Talk That Talk" scraped 20,000 sales to reach No. 5.

Adele showed no signs of slowing down her chart reign. Her third single, "Set Fire to the Rain," knocked Rihanna's "We Found Love" from the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100. The British singer's previous two singles, "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You" also scored the top chart position last year.

"21" joins a list of just nine albums in Billboard history to top the 200 album chart while two singles from the album take the top spot on the Hot 100 songs chart.

In the Digital Songs chart, Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" was dethroned from No. 1 by David Guetta's thumping club track "Turn Me On" featuring Nicki Minaj.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/music_nm/us_adele_charts

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Homeless science whiz isn't contest finalist

>>> this morning on education nation today, a young woman who went from a homeless shelter to last night's state of the union address . we'll talk to her in a moment. but first, nbc's chief education correspondent rehema ellis has details. hey, good morning.

>> good morning, ann. samantha garvey is here tnear the top of her class in high school and just clal identified for a science competition, amazing for anyone, but there is much more to samantha 's story. she looks like a typical teenager. but for samantha garvey , life has been an extraordinary whirlwind since news broke that she's a semifinalist in the nation's prestigious intel science competition with a shot at the $100,000 prize.

>> i'm not sure how to put it into words. i don't know. it's amazing, wild, crazy.

>> reporter: beneath the petite frame and chipped nail polish is a story of triumph over turmoil. as word got out that the brentwood, new york, high school senior with a 3.9 grade point average was also homeless.

>> basically we were having financial trouble and we got behind on rent payments. by november/december we were notified that we had to leave the house and we were evicted on december 31.

>> reporter: samantha , her parents and her younger brother and sister were forced to leave this home and move to a nearby shelter where the family dog was not allowed.

>> on the holidays you're not celebrating the holidays. you're putting your stuff in storage and looking for a place to live. it's really not -- it's kind of -- it's bad.

>> reporter: with the help of her counselors and teachers, particularly rebecca samantha managed to stay on track with her studies in marine biology .

>> she has the intellect, the drive, the determination to succeed no matter what.

>> reporter: officials in suffolk county social services stepped in and offered the family a three-bedroom home through an affordable housing program for families in shelters.

>> we had to leave everything behind at the old place so to have everything given to us -- you know, this is completely amazing. thank you.

>> reporter: a call from the ellen degeneres show resulted in more good news.

>> a $50,000 scholarship. [ cheers and applause ]

>> i could not believe it. i have never seen that many zeroes in my life.

>> reporter: then an invitation from her local congressman to attend the president's state of the union address .

>> she has not only inspired her peers, but she has inspired her community and the nation at large.

>> my parents said, keep your head up. if you look down and mope, nothing will come out of it. i always took that to heart. i just kept a positive mentality.

>> reporter: samantha garvey is keeping that positive outlook as she waits to hear from colleges. this is a kid who told me she figured out early on that education is her ticket to a better life . she's truly a remarkable kid and it's a great story, ann?

>> it is, rehema ellis. thank you so much. samantha garvey now joins us. good morning.

>> good morning.

>> you have in your hand still a copy of the president's speech.

>> yes.

>> he's signed it for you? is that right?

>> yes.

>> want to show us the signature?

>> yes.

>> a speech from the state of the union address . you carried this, driving all night to get here. are you tired this morning?

>> definitely pretty tired.

>> what's it like for you to have been there? what's the strongest memory you have of that last night?

>> just being there. it was the craziest feeling. being behind the scenes you get a perspective you would never dream of having. this was once in a lifetime . just standing there and you see the first lady come out and you're just struck, in awe, like frozen. all you want to do is gaze at her. she's beautiful. the president comes in and you're clapping and clapping. i don't know how long i clapped. that was the longest i have ever clapped and i didn't mind. everything was so amazing. having these historical figures, people so prominent standing right in front of you.

>> a lot of people listening now are more amazed by where you started from to get to that experience. what was it that allowed you, despite the sufferings in your family -- there was a car accident, your parents losing b jobs, an illness. all kinds of issues. what allowed you despite the fact that you were homeless to still maintain such a high g.p.a., to be so good in school?

>> i would say my research, science have been my ticket out. you know? throughout all of the things i faced i have been able to go to school and get my education and do my studies. that's my way out. keep me focused, keep me from going off track.

>> you're saying it was not a crutch but it was the thing that was beautiful.

>> yes, exactly.

>> at a time when things with were not easy.

>> yes.

>> as i understand it you are getting your dog back is this.

>> we got our dog back. an anonymous person came forward and paid for our dog and took her out of the shelter. she's now happy in a little dog hotel doing much better.

>> you're still in the shelter.

>> yes.

>> when do you think you may be living at home because your father is working again.

>> hopefully very soon.

>> also hopefully is you will get accepted to a good college. you have applied to yale and brown.

>> yes.

>> you are waiting to hear as we heard from rehema who may or may not accept you. what do you want to do with your life?

>> i want to keep doing what i'm doing now. i want to work hard and continue doing my science. being at the state of the union last night i got to meet fantastic people. i thought, i kind of want to do what they do. i want to take the policy aspect and keep doing that along with the science part of it.

>> well, you have shown us all that there is great potential all over america that needs to be encouraged. thank you for showing us so much.

>> thank you.

>> such an uplifting story. samantha , thank you. good luck to

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46137244/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Kids seek tans, use less sunscreen as they age: survey (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? As kids go from elementary to junior high school ages, the desire to tan gets stronger while the habit of using sun protection gets tossed out the window, according to a survey that tracked kids' attitudes about the sun over three years.

"I think especially at this age, and in general, there are a lot of forces that promote tanning," said Stephen Dusza, a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and lead author of the new study.

Dusza said he anticipated that, due in part to advertising and the tanning culture of many celebrities, the kids would want to tan more as they got older.

He told Reuters Health that he also expected to see some decline in sunscreen use in adolescence, "but I was struck by the magnitude of the reduction in the use of sunscreen -- a 50 percent drop."

Dusza's group surveyed 360 Massachusetts fifth graders about their time in the sun, how often they used sun protection and their attitudes about tanning.

Three years later, the kids answered the same questions.

Only one in four of the eighth graders said they used sunscreen when they were outside for more than six hours, which was half as many who said they used sunscreen while in fifth grade.

Four out of 10 of the kids also went outside just to get a tan when they were in eighth grade, compared to two out of 10 when they were in fifth grade.

Despite the children spending more time outside trying to get a tan as they approached adolescence, the number of kids who got sunburned remained the same at about 50 percent.

Dusza said he's not certain why sunburns didn't increase, but that maybe the kids defined a sunburn differently as they got older or that their outdoor activities had changed.

Dr. Sophie Balk, an attending pediatrician at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both in New York, said the study "underlines that many young people aren't protecting their skin."

This is a concern, Balk said, because of evidence that sun damage at a young age is tied to a higher risk later on of developing melanoma - the most deadly of the skin cancers.

"Kids think looking tan is consistent with looking healthy, but it's the opposite. A tan is the body's response to UV exposure" and it shows there's been damage to the skin, Balk told Reuters Health.

Balk said she tries to change children's attitudes toward sun protection by educating kids and their parents about the dangers of sunburns, and by encouraging young people to be proud of their untanned skin color.

"We need more media messages, more role models, more public health campaigns. As a society we could be doing more to promote skin cancer prevention and skin protection," she said.

Sunscreen is just one way to protect your skin from the sun.

Clothing, hats, sunglasses and limiting sun exposure when the sun is strongest between 10 am and 4 pm also help.

"Outside is good, you just have to do it smart," Balk said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/xrguxt Pediatrics, online January 23, 2012.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/hl_nm/us_kids_sunscreen

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Shawn Michaels? ?Awesome? advice for The Miz

The Miz spends an inordinate amount of time telling the WWE Universe just how awesome he is. Fans might debate that point, but right now Miz can honestly claim that he?s No. 1 ? though we have a feeling the Superstar isn?t too thrilled by this newfound ?glory.? After his Monday night loss to former tag team partner R-Truth, The Awesome One was forced to come to terms with the fact that he?ll be the No. 1 entrant in this Sunday?s Royal Rumble Match. (PHOTOS | WATCH)

But cheer up, Miz. WWE.com is here to help you out. And, really, who better to give advice on the subject than The Heartbreak Kid, WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels ? the first-ever No. 1 entrant to outlast everyone else and win the 30-Superstar over-the-top rope contest?

?It never really looked like being No. 1 was not something you wanted to be,? Michaels said. ?I recognize that you?ve got longer to go, and you?ve got to face everybody and endure to the end, but I saw that as a badge of honor.?

Royal Rumble 1995 marked the first time ever the match?s first two competitors ? HBK and The British Bulldog ? were also the final two competitors in the ring, giving hope to every Superstar unlucky enough to draw a low number. As with most things in life, Shawn saw his early entry not as a detriment, but as ?a privilege to go in No. 1 and to see if you could endure to the end."

Michaels wore that badge of honor proudly in January 1995, not only overcoming his early entrance, but also coming back from certain defeat to win the match. That match?s finish ? in which Bulldog clotheslined HBK over the top rope ? has become the stuff of legend. After the clothesline, the beloved Superstar started celebrating in the ring.

Imagine his surprise when, moments later, HBK delivered a double ax-handle, sending Bulldog sailing over the ropes. Confusion set in as the referee raised Michaels? hand in victory, but as the replay would show, The Showstopper was able to grab onto the ropes and keep his left foot from touching the floor. It?s a moment that will live forever in WWE lore. (WATCH)

Getting to the end of the Royal Rumble Match takes a lot of work beforehand ? a notion Michaels fully understood going in.

?At that point in my career,? he explained, ?I was so into wanting to be a ?WWE Iron Man?? the match a couple years later notwithstanding. I can remember at that time very vividly being a fan of Ric Flair. The prot?g? of going long distances and working hard for a long period of time ... it?s what I wanted to be.?

The WWE Hall of Famer knew that a positive outlook, although important, wasn?t everything, especially in the grueling environment of the Royal Rumble Match. ?I was never going to match guys from a standpoint of size or strength,? Michaels told WWE.com. ?But I always felt that the longer I could go, I was going to neutralize whatever strengths they had.?

Displaying a flair for both philosophy and common sense, Michaels opined, ?There?s an old saying that ?fatigue makes cowards of us all.? And, it may not make a coward of you, but it certainly makes a 300-pound guy a lot easier to maneuver and manipulate when he?s tired and just doing everything he can to keep up.

?I pride myself on the fact that there wasn?t anybody in the locker room that could last longer in the ring than me,? he added.

That was then; but what about this year?s Royal Rumble Match? What advice does The Heartbreak Kid have for its combatants ? most specifically, for The Miz?

?In the Rumble, everybody is your potential friend and your potential enemy,? the WWE Hall of Famer said. ?You make alliances that you wouldn?t normally make, and you stab anybody in the back that you want to stab in the back.?

Tough words, but also true. According to HBK, ?[The Royal Rumble Match is] the epitome of every man for himself and being thrown in the shark tank ? which is the thing that?s so phenomenal about it. You see alliances that you never thought you would, and at the same time you see some pretty serious betrayals that you didn?t see coming.?

Michaels acknowledged that, at the end of the night, ?only one guy can be standing there .... Pride and all of those things get thrown out the window, and you do whatever you?ve got to do to win. Miz is a sleazy enough dude ? that fits him ? so I think that?s gonna be his strength.?

Miz?s ?sliminess? aside, Michaels also recognizes something inherent in The Awesome One?s makeup that just might give him a built-in advantage over much of the WWE roster this Sunday. ?You have to appreciate a guy that causes you to look at yourself and call into question those attributes that you want to pretend you don?t have. In desperate situations, we all have them to some degree.?

Want more HBK? Check out Shawn?s show on Outdoor Channel, Shawn Michaels' MacMillan River Adventures, winner of the 2011 Golden Moose Award for Best Conservation. And be sure to follow The Showstopper on Twitter (@ShawnMichaels), where you can find out how to win two tickets to WrestleManiaXXVIII and a meet-and-greet with The Heartbreak Kid himself!

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/hbk-advice-miz-royal-rumble

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Web music revenue growth stuck in single figures

LONDON (AP) ? Legitimate music downloads still aren't growing quickly enough.

A report published Monday by the recording industry's main lobby group showed that digital revenue has grown 8 percent over the past year to about $5.2 billion ? a solid figure for some industries, but not one where overall receipts have fallen by nearly two-thirds amid a shift toward online ? and in many cases illegal ? music downloads.

"The 8 percent figure should be much higher," said Frances Moore, the chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. "That's part of our task in 2012."

Moore blamed music piracy for starving online retailers and music subscription services of custom, saying the legitimate music business was working in an "extremely challenging" environment.

"It's very difficult to turn things around overnight," she said.

The IFPI's report highlighted many of those turnaround efforts, noting for example that there are around 500 legitimate music services worldwide offering up to 20 million tracks.

It said subscription services were doing particularly well in Scandinavia, the home of popular music service Spotify, whereas in France the number of subscribers nearly doubled in the first 11 months of 2011.

Music pirates remain the IFPI's No. 1 enemy, and the group's report congratulated several countries on their efforts to crack down on illegal file sharing.

It said French authorities had sent out more than 700,000 warnings to suspected copyright violators, an act it said had helped drive down file sharing on peer-to-peer networks by 26 percent since October 2010.

In the United States, the group said most major American Internet service providers had signed up to a "copyright alert system" aimed at issuing similar warnings to suspected file sharers.

Even in China, where piracy rates approached 100 percent, the IFPI said progress was being made. In June record companies joined hands with search engine Baidu to fight pirated content and create authorized digital music service Ting.

But the fight against infringement has seen some high-profile reverses, including last week's shelving of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S., which was originally intended to block access to pirate websites. Critics accused the law's backers of installing a regime of Internet censorship, and Google and Wikipedia partially obscured or entirely blacked out their websites in a dramatic and ultimately successful protest.

Moore described the bill's demise as a setback and said that the technology community "has come out a bit hysterically against this."

But she said her organization would continue to lobby internationally for website-blocking, arguing that the measure was "efficient, effective, and proportionate."

There's much at stake as the music industry struggles to build its online presence. Worldwide sales of physical music ? such as CDs ? have dropped from $28.1 billion in 2000 to $10 billion in 2011.

Independent media analyst Mark Mulligan said in the U.S. the music industry has "already lost half of the music market in the past 10 years."

He said there was no realistic hope digital music would make up for the shortfall in the near term.

"What we're talking about is: 'How much of a burning building can we save from the flames?'" he said.

___

Online:

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry: http://www.ifpi.org/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-EU-Digital-Music/id-dd60558df6d244de8a7865921de6a1df

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iPhone apps to plan and prep for your Super Bowl party (Appolicious)

The Super Bowl is the perfect excuse to throw a party whether your team is in the big game or not. You can go high-class with a full menu of hors d?oeuvres, or simply grab your iPhone and order pizza in for your guests. Whatever you decide, make it easy to plan and prepare by using some of these suggested iPhone apps.

With more than 500 tasty recipes to choose from, the free Must-Have Recipes from Better Homes and Gardens app for iPhone is the perfect place to start planning your Super Bowl party menu. Select your favorite recipes and group into a Super Bowl party section for easy access and organization. Easily create a shopping list from your selected recipes with this app, and then check items off one by one at the grocery store as you shop. Plus, it?s super easy to share recipes with party goers who are guaranteed to love your tasty party bites.

Hey, just because you are having a get-together, doesn?t mean you have to cook. Prepare for your Super Bowl party by simply downloading the free Domino?s Pizza USA app for iPhone. Then, swiftly order a plethora of pizza, wings, breadsticks and drinks to feed your party people.

Are you a professional football fanatic? With the free NFL Photo Booth app for iPhone, you and your party goers can take photos with your favorite NFL football players including Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and more. Upload a group photo and get busy adding official team gear like helmets and jerseys to your friends and family. Don?t see your favorite NFL player? You can buy more than 150 players via in-app purchase. This is a great way to include guests who may not be fans of the actual teams playing in the 2012 Super Bowl.

Looking for an iPhone game to pass around during your Super Bowl party? Look no further than the free T-Bone Jacksons Super Pee-Wee Pass Challenge app for iPhone. This flick football game app is hilarious. Pass the football to the children without letting T-Bone?s jive-talk distract you.

We all know how hot-headed some football fans can get. Check out the free Football Dilemmas app for iPhone and let your guests test their football knowledge. This football-themed app has 25 different scenarios that a quarterback might be faced with, and your guests get to battle it out to make the right decision. Have a guest that thinks he knows it all? Put him to the test with this fun football app.

Not really a fan of the Giants or Patriots in the Super Bowl this year? Use the big game as a chance to throw a beer tasting party instead. Have all your guests get the Memorable Beers app for their iPhones ($1.99) and hook them up with a wide-range of beers. Now taste the beers and everyone can record information about their favorites in this app. Cheers!

Create a list of your favorite Super Bowl apps right here

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/appolicious_rss/rss_appolicious_sp/http___www_appolicious_com_articles10839_iphone_apps_to_plan_and_prep_for_your_super_bowl_party/44274327/SIG=138hhb9fc/*http%3A//www.appolicious.com/shine/articles/10839-iphone-apps-to-plan-and-prep-for-your-super-bowl-party

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Rick vs. Newt: The debate factor

Rick Perry's candidacy failed almost entirely on the weakness of his debate performances, while Newt Gingrich's? is thriving on the strength of his. One problem: a good debater doesn't necessarily make a good president.

I try to be careful not to get into the horse race aspects of things around here, but I thought Gov Perry?s rise and fall was notable in the following sense.

Skip to next paragraph Jared Bernstein

?

Before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow, Jared was chief economist to Vice President Joseph Biden and executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class. He is a contributor to MSNBC and CNBC and has written numerous books, including 'Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?'

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It takes a lot to run an effective primary campaign these days, with money and organization and name recognition often at the top of the list.? But you also need to be a good debater.? Gov Perry wasn?t, and his high scores on those other assets failed to offset that by a Texas mile.

Newt, on the other hand, is a sharp debater.? And his lack of those other attributes, e.g., organization, has, at least for now, been largely offset by his debating prowess.

But here?s the thing: does being a good debater make you a good president?? I can?t see that it does.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on jaredbernsteinblog.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/jYzTHAa2O5c/Rick-vs.-Newt-The-debate-factor

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Biochip measures glucose in saliva, not blood

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2012) ? Engineers at Brown University have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. The biochip uses plasmonic interferometers and could be used to measure a range of biological and environmental substances.?

For the 26 million Americans with diabetes, drawing blood is the most prevalent way to check glucose levels. It is invasive and at least minimally painful. Researchers at Brown University are working on a new sensor that can check blood sugar levels by measuring glucose concentrations in saliva instead.

The technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons (light). The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip. Their results showed that the specially designed biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood.

"This is proof of concept that plasmonic interferometers can be used to detect molecules in low concentrations, using a footprint that is ten times smaller than a human hair," said Domenico Pacifici, assistant professor of engineering and lead author of the paper published in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

The technique can be used to detect other chemicals or substances, from anthrax to biological compounds, Pacifici said, "and to detect them all at once, in parallel, using the same chip."

To create the sensor, the researchers carved a slit about 100 nanometers wide and etched two 200 nanometer-wide grooves on either side of the slit. The slit captures incoming photons and confines them. The grooves, meanwhile, scatter the incoming photons, which interact with the free electrons bounding around on the sensor's metal surface. Those free electron-photon interactions create a surface plasmon polariton, a special wave with a wavelength that is narrower than a photon in free space. These surface plasmon waves move along the sensor's surface until they encounter the photons in the slit, much like two ocean waves coming from different directions and colliding with each other. This "interference" between the two waves determines maxima and minima in the light intensity transmitted through the slit. The presence of an analyte (the chemical being measured) on the sensor surface generates a change in the relative phase difference between the two surface plasmon waves, which in turns causes a change in light intensity, measured by the researchers in real time.

"The slit is acting as a mixer for the three beams -- the incident light and the surface plasmon waves," Pacifici said.

The engineers learned they could vary the phase shift for an interferometer by changing the distance between the grooves and the slit, meaning they could tune the interference generated by the waves. The researchers could tune the thousands of interferometers to establish baselines, which could then be used to accurately measure concentrations of glucose in water as low as 0.36 milligrams per deciliter.

"It could be possible to use these biochips to carry out the screening of multiple biomarkers for individual patients, all at once and in parallel, with unprecedented sensitivity," Pacifici said.

The engineers next plan to build sensors tailored for glucose and for other substances to further test the devices. "The proposed approach will enable very high throughput detection of environmentally and biologically relevant analytes in an extremely compact design. We can do it with a sensitivity that rivals modern technologies," Pacifici said.

Tayhas Palmore, professor of engineering, is a contributing author on the paper. Graduate students Jing Feng (engineering) and Vince Siu (biology), who designed the microfluidic channels and carried out the experiments, are listed as the first two authors on the paper. Other authors include Brown engineering graduate student Steve Rhieu and undergraduates Vihang Mehta, Alec Roelke.

Results are published in Nano Letters. The National Science Foundation and Brown (through a Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award) funded the research.

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Journal Reference:

1. Jing Feng, Vince S. Siu, Alec Roelke, Vihang Mehta, Steve Y. Rhieu, G. Tayhas R. Palmore, Domenico Pacifici. Nanoscale Plasmonic Interferometers for Multispectral, High-Throughput Biochemical Sensing. Nano Letters, 2012; 120109130837001 DOI: 10.1021/nl203325s

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120123115530.htm

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Mitt vs. the walking dead (Politico)

CHARLESTON, S.C. - They?ve been nuked on the airwaves, buried at the polls and had their obituaries written by the national political class.

Yet as voting begins in the South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney?s remaining opponents sound more determined than ever to make him wage a long and potentially costly battle for the Republican presidential nomination. Driven by a range of personal resentments and unlikely strategies, the surviving anti-Romney candidates are following a path blazed every four years by one set or another of proud underdogs: pressing on with guerrilla-style campaigns that were never allowed much hope of success.

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It?s not that they don?t recognize that the odds are stacked against them, or that they?re oblivious to Romney?s strengths. But for Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, the campaign has always been a desperate errand - a windmill-tilting exercise in ignoring the overwhelming conventional wisdom that says that they have no chance.

The result is now a race that forces Romney to keep battling opponents he has vanquished - or thought he vanquished - at other points in the race. And they can keep on fighting him as long as they have the will and money to keep going.

?If Mitt wins South Carolina, then anyone that continues on is walking dead,? said California-based GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, who worked for Romney in 2008. ?It was quite legitimate for all of them to go to South Carolina and see if they could break out. Because if one of them could win South Carolina, it would probably winnow the rest of the field out and leave more of a singular conservative for voters to coalesce behind.?

Here in the Palmetto State, Romney?s most fearsome back-from-the-grave opponent is Gingrich, who is attempting to rebound from weak finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire with a shock victory. He?s delivered an aggressive message against the frontrunner and the super PAC Winning Our Future has run a searing ad campaign attacking Romney?s business background.

Gingrich capped his week with a bravura performance in Thursday night?s debate in which he seemingly accomplished a political miracle - turning an accusation by his ex-wife that he wanted an ?open marriage? into a thunderous applause line.

Even if Romney should lose here, he would still be the strongest candidate by far for the Republican nomination, a reality his challengers recognize. But Romney has also shown his vulnerable spots over the last few days, fumbling the issue of when he?ll release his tax returns and sounding flummoxed and defensive on the debate stage.

Should Romney?s week end with a loss in South Carolina, other candidates hope it will trigger a larger reconsideration of Romney within the GOP, sowing doubts about his abilities as a candidate and giving Gingrich and Santorum a new chance to make their case.

As one die-hard Gingrich supporter put it: ?It?s a sliver of an opening.?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories0112_71723_html/44253382/SIG=11m2v4ms9/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71723.html

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Reality-TV winner just might go into space

Danny Martindale / Getty Images

Reality-TV impresario Simon Cowell poses for photos with fans as "Britain's Got Talent" kicks off its annual talent search Friday with an event at the Lyric Theatre in Manchester.

By Alan Boyle

More than a decade after the first effort to blend reality TV with real-world spaceflight,?talent-show impresario Simon Cowell says the winner of "Britain's Got Talent" could go into outer space on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.

"I love the idea that if they are up for it they have the option of performing in space,"?Cowell told?Britain's Daily Star. The comment comes as Cowell is ramping up for a new season of the show that?inspired "America's Got Talent."

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Cowell has already signed up for his own flight on SpaceShipTwo, which could start flying passengers beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) boundary of outer space on $200,000 suborbital rides as early as next year. The longtime record producer, who left an enduring mark on reality-TV history as the black-garbed, brutally frank judge on "American Idol," hinted that he's worked out a deal with British?billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic.

Live Poll

Do you think Simon Cowell has a winning plan for reality TV in outer space?

• 173950

  Yes, that'd be must-see TV.

  37%

• 173951

  No, this idea is sure to fizzle out.

  43%

• 173952

  It's a tossup.

  20%

VoteTotal Votes: 46

"It's tens of millions of pounds, but Richard genuinely is up for doing it," Cowell told the Star. "I am being serious, I swear to God and on my mum?s life. Don?t worry about the details, we?ll make it happen."

If Cowell is to make it happen anytime soon, the winner would?most?probably have to travel to New Mexico to follow through on the flight plan. And it seems unlikely that going into space would be a requirement placed on the winner, whoever?he or she?turns out to be.

Producers have tried for years to put together a reality-TV show focusing on spaceflight. The highest-profile effort was "Survivor" executive producer Mark Burnett's plans?in 2000?for a?show that would follow contestants through?the training routine for spaceflight. The winner would have?been sent?to?Russia's Mir space station ? but that concept fizzled out even before Mir was deorbited in 2001.

Other proposed entertainment?projects have revolved around?pop singer Lance Bass and film director James Cameron. Just last week, Beyonce and Jay-Z were said to be interested in doing a music video aboard SpaceShipTwo.

No Hollywood space effort has yet gotten off the ground, but if anyone has the required combination of guts, glitz and gold, I suppose that'd be Branson. Like Cowell, Branson is a veteran of reality TV, having starred in "The Rebel Billionaire," a series that aired on Fox in 2004-2005.

Who knows? In the next year or two, there may be more than one way for reality-TV contestants to get into outer space. Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer for XCOR Aerospace, says his company is moving ahead with its own Lynx rocket plane ? and he's not shy about courting Cowell's attention.

"If Simon wants to take a more exciting ride at half the price, I'd take his call," Nelson told me today.

More about commercial space:

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Alan Boyle is msnbc.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. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.?

Source: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10202380-britains-got-talent-in-space

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