Egypt on edge ahead of more protests

CAIRO (AP) ? Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egypt's embattled Islamist president are holding rival sit-ins on the eve of what are expected to be massive opposition-led protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi's ouster.

The demonstrations early Saturday follow days of deadly clashes in a string of cities across the country that left at least seven people dead, including an American, and hundreds injured.

Cairo, which saw large pro- and anti-Morsi rallies on Friday, was uncharacteristically quiet Saturday despite the sit-ins as the city braced for more potentially violent opposition protests.

Opposition groups have vowed to bring out millions Sunday to force Morsi from office. The rallies are timed to coincide with the anniversary of Morsi's taking power as Egypt's first freely elected leader.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-edge-ahead-more-protests-105228905.html

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'Parrot dinosaur' walked on all fours, then graduated to two

New research suggests that Psittacosaurus, China's 'parrot dinosaur,' walked on four feet ? and then two feet.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 28, 2013

A Psittacosaurus skeleton is shown in the permanent collection of The Children?s Museum of Indianapolis.

Michelle Pemberton/Wikimedia Commons/Science Daily

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A baby in a dinosaur costume can do a laudable imitation of how a young dinosaur might have behaved.

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New research suggests that Psittacosaurus, the 'parrot dinosaur,' walked on four feet ? and then two feet ? some 100 million years ago in what is now China. It would have grown up much like the modern human, at first exploring its world on all fours, like a toddler, and then graduating to upright motion.

Qi Zhao, a Ph.D student at the University of Bristol and a researcher at the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing, studied a total of 16 fossil specimens ranging in from less than 1 year old to 10 years old. He found that the 1-year-old Psittacosaurus?specimens had long arms and short legs, meaning that the toddler dinosaur was biologically equipped to walk on all fours.

The arm bones showed continued growth in the dinosaurs between 1 and 3 years old, but the arm growth was dwarfed when the animal?s legs began to rapidly grow between 4 and 6 years old. At the age of 6, the Psittacosaurus?had legs twice as long as its arms and would have walked upright.?

That discovery, published in the scientific journal Nature Communications,?suggests not only that individual?Psittacosauruses went from four to two legs, but that the species had also evolved over time from four-legged adults to two-legged adults, adapting to environmental pressures.

?Having four-legged babies and juveniles suggests that at some time in their ancestry, both juveniles and adults were also four-legged, and Psittacosaurus and dinosaurs in general became secondarily bipedal,? said Mike Benton, a professor at the University of Bristol.

Measuring dinosaur growth is difficult, since enough samples are seldom available to track the species? development through its life cycle. Psittacosaurus, an herbivore distantly related to Triceratops, is a popular dinosaur for study, given the uniquely wide availability of viable fossils. The dinosaur?s genus includes between nine to 11 species, found in China, Mongolia, Russia, and Thailand.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/rf1Cm44IaeQ/Parrot-dinosaur-walked-on-all-fours-then-graduated-to-two

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Overweight causes heart failure: Large study with new method clarifies the association

June 25, 2013 ? An international research team led by Swedish scientists has used a new method to investigate obesity and overweight as a cause of cardiovascular disease. Strong association have been found previously, but it has not been clear whether it was overweight as such that was the cause, or if the overweight was just a marker of another underlying cause, as clinical trials with long-term follow-ups are difficult to implement.

A total of nearly 200,000 subjects were included in the researchers' study of the causality between obesity/overweight and diseases related to cardiovascular conditions and metabolism, which is being published for the first time in PLOS Medicine. The goal was to determine whether obesity as such is the actual cause of these diseases or whether obesity is simply a marker of something else in the subject's lifestyle that causes the disease.

"We knew already that obesity and cardiovascular disease often occur together. However, it has been hard to determine whether increased BMI as such is dangerous. In this study we found that individuals with gene variants that lead to increased body-mass index (BMI) also had an increased risk of heart failure and diabetes. The risk of developing diabetes was greater than was previously thought," says Tove Fall, a researcher at the Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, who coordinated the study together with researchers from the Karolinska Institutet and Oxford University.

These scientists studied whether a gene variant in the FTO gene, which regulates the appetite and thereby increases the individual's BMI, is also linked to a series of cardiovascular diseases and metabolism. The risk variant is common in the population, and each copy of the risk variant increases BMI by an average of 0.3-0.4 units. Since an individual's genome is not affected by lifestyle and social factors, but rather is established at conception, when the embryo randomly receives half of each parent's genome, the method is thus called "Mendelian randomization." To achieve reliable results a large study material was needed, and nearly 200,000 individuals from Europe and Australia participated.

"Epidemiological studies look for associations in large populations, but it is usually difficult to reliably determine cause and effect -- what we call causality. By using this new genetic method, Mendelian randomization, in our research, we can now confirm what many people have long believed, that increased BMI contributes to the development of heart failure. We also found that overweight causes increases in liver enzymes . This knowledge is important, as it strengthens the evidence that forceful societal measures need to be taken to counteract the epidemic of obesity and its consequences," says Erik Ingelsson, professor at the Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University.

The results show that an increase of one unit of BMI increases the risk of developing heart failure by an average of 20 per cent. Further, the study also confirms that obesity leads to higher insulin values, higher blood pressure, worse cholesterol values, increased inflammation markers, and increased risk of diabetes.

The present study was carried out within the framework of the major research consortium ENGAGE, which brings together more than 35 studies and more than 130 co-authors. The study was coordinated by Erik Ingelsson's research group in collaboration with the Karolinska Institutet and Oxford University.

The study was funded by, among others, the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (ENGAGE), the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, and the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/x3-K-iv2mww/130625172248.htm

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Crazy Guy Threatened To Kill ?Soul Mate? Miranda Kerr

Crazy Guy Threatened To Kill “Soul Mate” Miranda Kerr

Model Miranda Kerr’s life was threatened by a a 52-year-old man named Steven C. Swanson, who made plans to travel to her Los Angeles home to kill her! Swanson called L.A. police to share his plans to “rescue” his “wife” and “soul mate” next month. Scary stuff! Swanson was was taken into custody after he ...

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/06/crazy-guy-threatened-to-kill-soul-mate-miranda-kerr/

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Religion plays irreplaceable role in society, Archbishop Lori says ...

This is a syndicated post from CNA Daily News. [Read the original article...]

Baltimore, Md., Jun 22, 2013 / 10:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Opening the 2013 Fortnight for Freedom, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore emphasized the unique contribution that religion brings to society, warning that it must be protected and allowed to flourish.

?Faith enriches public life not only by the magnitude of its services but by the qualities of mind and heart, by the values and virtues, it brings to the task,? said Archbishop Lori.

He warned that while religious organizations and individuals provide vital services for the common good, ?our government is taking from what belongs to God by state-sponsored attempts to force the Church to compromise her own teachings as the price to be paid for serving the wider community.?

Archbishop Lori, who chairs the U.S. Bishops? Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, delivered the homily at a June 21 Mass at the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the nation?s oldest Cathedral, in downtown Baltimore, Md.

The cathedral was packed with members of the faithful who had come from both Maryland and from other states across the country to attend the opening Mass of the Fortnight for Freedom. They welcomed the archbishop?s homily with a standing ovation.

The Fortnight for Freedom ? currently in its second year ? is a two-week period of prayer, education and action for a greater respect for religious liberty both in the U.S. and abroad.

Growing threats to religious freedom prompted the U.S. bishops to call for the first Fortnight for Freedom last year. Among these threats is the upcoming Aug. 1 deadline when religious organizations must comply with the controversial HHS mandate, which requires employers to facilitate insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can cause early abortions, even if such cooperation violates their firmly-held religious beliefs.

Other religious liberty concerns raised in past months include attempts to redefine marriage and threats to freedom of religious activity in the realms of health care, humanitarian aid and immigration.

Archbishop Lori explained that ?the Church does not have two wings: a ?faith and worship? division on the one hand, and a ?service? division on the other.? Rather, he said, ?what we believe and how we worship gives rise to public service.?

Acts of service such as education, health care and aid to the poor are not a separate branch of the Catholic faith, he stressed, but ?these activities are part of our baptismal DNA as Catholic Christians.?

?No wonder we shudder, no wonder we react so strongly, when governmental authority tries to slice and dice our Church by separating in law and policy our houses of worship from our charitable, healthcare and educational institutions on the score that the latter are somehow less religious than our churches.?

In the attempt to impose various restrictions on faith-based action and belief, ?Caesar is taking from what belongs to God,? Archbishop Lori said.

In its infringements on religious freedom, ?our government is not only taking what belongs to God; it is also taking from what belongs to human dignity and the common good,? he continued.

?For by imperiling religious freedom, all human rights are put at risk.?

The archbishop explained that rights such as ?the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly ? are linked, and these rights are not granted to us by the State but by the Creator.?

Faith is a source of values that lead to deeds which benefit the common good, he stated.

?Through faith we understand that every person is called to share God?s life,? Archbishop Lori observed. ?Through faith we see more readily what a truly just and humane society should be and we receive the strength we need to build a true civilization of truth and love.?

Therefore, he stressed, religious belief benefits the public square ?not only by the sheer magnitude of the humanitarian services it offers but by its witness to Christ Jesus, its witness to those moral truths and values without which democracy cannot flourish.?

The archbishop also explained that the maintenance of religious freedom is important not only to Christians in America, but to all believers of all faiths across the entire globe.

?We continue to live in an age of martyrs ? when believers, not just Christians, are being persecuted for professing and practicing their faith ? when believers are tortured and killed because they are believers, in places like Iran, Iraq, China and Nigeria.?

?Let us keep the flame of faith and the flame of freedom burning brightly not only for our children and our children?s children,? Archbishop Lori entreated, ?but also for the sake of these persecuted believers who see in our form of government and in our great land a beacon of hope.?

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Source: http://www.dfwcatholic.org/religion-plays-irreplaceable-role-in-society-archbishop-lori-says-36708/.html

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Obama sees 'glimmers of functionality' in DC

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) ? President Barack Obama says he's starting to see some functionality in Washington but he's still not getting the cooperation he needs from Congress.

Obama tells Democratic donors that Democrats don't have a monopoly on wisdom. He says Democrats aren't overly ideological at the moment and don't think government can do everything. But he says Democrats do think government has a role to play.

Obama says the U.S. has everything going for it, but millions of people are still missing out on opportunity. He says the only way he can change that is if Americans elect members of Congress who share his optimism and are willing to compromise.

Obama spoke Thursday at a fundraiser for Senate Democrats' campaign committee at a private home. Donors paid between $2,500 and $32,400 to attend.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-sees-glimmers-functionality-dc-021507918.html

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