These 'genetic circuits' could, for example, be used by scientists to track key moments in a cell's life or, in biotechnology, to turn on production of a drug at the flick of a chemical switch.
Code-Monkey Translation: Scientists, lacking a good debugger for living organisms, have made a breakthrough: They're now able to employ the tried and true tradition of adding printf( "Made it here and didn't crash!" ); and/or if ( DEBUG && VK_LSHIFT_DN ) {... } code into bacteria.
Despite the platform being in open beta for as long as anyone can remember and its undeniable popularity the world over, professional coders experienced with situations that require resorting to this technique in und
LONDON (AP) ? Out in the small Italian town of Gemona, among many places around the world, the arrest of Oscar Pistorius on murder charges was hard to believe.
It was on a new track in the northeastern corner of Italy that the double-amputee from South Africa trained last year for his Olympic debut, running lap after lap on his Cheetah Flex-Foot blades in preparation for his trip to the world's biggest sporting event.
On Thursday, shortly after Pistorius was charged in South Africa with the shooting death of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, the mayor of Gemona said it was tough to take.
"The news shocked not only me personally but also the whole of Gemona and the region. It's come as a huge shock to everyone who knew him," Mayor Paolo Urbani told The Associated Press. "I have to say Oscar was an exceptional testimonial for our project, helping the city take forward its sporting plans. He's a delightful person, not only as a sportsman but also how he is as a human being. The news is still very fragmentary and we're waiting to hear more, to find out exactly what happened."
Pistorius fought for years to be able to compete against able-bodied athletes after many said his carbon-fiber blades gave him an unfair advantage. He finally won his case in 2008, but failed to run the qualifying time for the Beijing Olympics.
He did, however, make South Africa's team for last year's London Olympics, reaching the semifinals in the 400 meters and then running for South Africa's 4x400 relay team in the final.
The International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee each had little to say about the case.
"This is not the moment for the IOC to be commenting on this tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the families affected and we send them our deepest sympathies," the IOC said in a statement.
The IPC said it was "police matter."
"Therefore it would be inappropriate for the IPC to comment on this incident until the official police process has concluded," the IPC said in a statement on its website. "The IPC would like to offer its deepest sympathy and condolences to all families involved in this case."
The South African Olympic committee released a statement saying they had been "inundated" with requests for comment but were not in a position to give out any details of the shooting.
"SASCOC, like the rest of the public, knows no more than what is in the public domain," the group said. "The organization is in no position to comment on the incident other than to say our deepest sympathy and condolences have been expressed to the families of all concerned."
Pistorius' father, Henke, declined to comment when contacted by the AP, saying only "we all pray for guidance and strength for Oscar and the lady's parents."
Agent Peet van Zyl and coach Ampie Louw couldn't be reached, while Pistorius' cellphone went straight to voicemail.
Former 100-meter world record-holder Asafa Powell tweeted about Steenkamp's death.
"Sad news about (at)oscarpistorius & fatal shooting of his girlfriend he's a true inspiration & amazing athlete. A real tragedy for all," Powell wrote.
Pistorius became an inspiration to many by overcoming his disability to compete at the highest level. Born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect, he had his legs ampuated at 11 months. But he still played sports, including rugby.
"It's incredible for anyone involved with Oscar, especially his family," Former Italian pole vaulter Andrea Giannini, who coached Pistorius from 2009-11, told the AP. "I knew Oscar well. I'm hoping it was just a tragic accident. He's a marvelous person, a really sweet and calm guy. It seemed like this was a calm time for him. He seemed really happy and well-balanced."
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AP Sports Writers Stephen Wilson in London, Andrew Dampf in Schladming, Austria, and Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, and Associated Press writer Daniella Matar in Milan, contributed to this report.
Shortcuts are not the preferred path for health and well being. When you want to reap a good harvest, you have to sow appropriately. A low calorie diet has been an important component of weight loss and healthy living since ages.
Combine it with exercising to get the most out of your efforts! A low calorie diet, which enables you to consume food and drinks in the range of 800 to 1,500 calories every day, should essentially be balanced so that you get enough of the nutritional intake besides keeping calories under check. It can be tricky to get a balanced nutrition with limited calories, but is not impossible.
Through careful and diverse choices, you can arrive at a balanced low calorie diet which is light on the body but not too light on the nutritional content.?Find here 5 such useful components which can make up a diet low in calories but high in nutrition.
Components Of A Low Calorie Diet
Choose a More Filling Ingredient
It is not easy to control calories, particularly during the early days of beginning your low-calorie diet or weight loss schedule. Changing a habit requires patience and perseverance. You should be a little liberal with your? body by choosing those food items which are low in calories but more filling and satiating (than many others which might be low in calorific value but still leave your hunger pangs awry).
For example, you can replace the fries with fresh fruits and veggies. To allure you taste buds, prepare an attractive palate. Include a variety of fruits loaded with different colors. These do not provide just empty calories, take longer to eat and are fulfilling for the hunger pangs as well. And you can get a whole lot of nutrients from them.
It is easy to have a candy bar when you are running short of time or in no mood to ?prepare? food. But a little preparation in advance (during your lean time) can save you from munching on empty calories. It is you who can choose between a candy bar and a pita stuffed with low-fat chicken salad, both providing the same amount of calories.
Include the Rich (Natural) Nutritional Foods
Many foods are overlooked because they lack taste or appeal, but they can be packed with nutrition even being low in calories. Do some research and find out food items which are undermined due to lack of taste or appeal.?One such food is the low-calorie celery stick. These sticks could easily be downgraded to food for animals or restricted to the desperate dieters.
However, the celery stick is one among the lowest calorie (natural) foods. Each stem can provide about five calories with loads of nutrition.? What?s better, the phytochemicals (phthalides) in celery may help relax the artery wall muscle tissue, enhance blood flow and help reduce blood pressure. These can be additional advantages of the natural food.
Another good inclusion is the watercress. These peppery green foods can be consumed generously (a pound can give only about 53 calories). Although low in calories, watercress has abundant vitamins ? A, C and K. A study points out that consuming 3 ounces of watercess (every day) enhances the cancer-fighting antioxidant levels.
Include Value Add-ons to your Diet
Wise choices can bring remarkable differences to eating. Since decades, research is being carried about foods which contribute to health and well being. When it comes to a low calorie diet, the research has greater significance in outlining those foods which can serve as the perfect choices in a calorie-specific diet or one aiming at controlling weight.
Green tea, which has gained much fame recently, is a rich antioxidant component for a low calorie diet. It is believed to aid fat burning, besides providing controlled calories. Going by studies, two to four cups of green tea each day can translate into about five pounds a year.
Furthermore, green tea also has a role to play in lowering cholesterol, and preventing illnesses (although the research is limited).? The benefits of green tea are likely to be influenced by other factors as lifestyle and eating habits.
Many health professionals agree that green tea can provide important antioxidants and compounds to help maintain good health. Green tea undergoes minimum processing; its leaves not fermented (like black tea) but withered and steamed. This makes green tea unique and more concentrated.
It also came out in certain studies that green tea (and its extract) can fight obesity and lower LDL (the bad cholesterol). A Dutch study revealed that drinking caffeinated green tea contributed to losing more weight, although drinking the decaf variety also lead to a decrease in waistlines and body weight.
Green tea may also be taken as weight loss supplements, except in case one has liver problem. However, it is best to drink it to get the most out of it. Green tea should become complementary to healthy living, not preferably consumed as a drug.
Also Read
Truth About Low-calorie Diets How Beneficial Are Very Low Calorie Diets? Lose Weight through Low Calorie Diet Low Calorie Diet ? Meet Your Weight Loss Goal Very Low Calorie Diet For Obesity
Balance your Diet with More Fruits
Fruits are essential for completing the diet, irrespective of the number of calories. Instead of eating the energy-dense foods, like chips and cookies, consume more of fruits. Apple, grapes, orange, kiwi, etc. are some of the good options to include in your low calorie diet.
Kiwis, the giant berries, are full of fiber, potassium and vitamin E, K and C.? Have the skin and everything to get the most out of them! And a cup of grapes can be satiating, yet good, for managing weight.
Besides, fruits (and vegetables) have more water and fiber than processed foods. These can be both filing and healthy. If you consume a whole juicy tomato, you get the same calories as five dry pretzel sticks. This can be a swapping worth trying!
Delight yourself with (Low Calorie) Treats
Consuming a restricted diet can make eating monotonous. To provide motivation for eating, give occasional treats to yourself. This does not mean dining out. You can prepare your own (low calorie) lip smacking treats.
Cottage cheese is a good ingredient which is low in calories, low in cost but high in protein and taste. It?s aptly fitting consistency and almost neutral taste makes it the right ingredient for hundreds (or thousands or more) of recipes. Occasional treats can help you stick to your low calorie diet and preserve the commitment for healthy living.
5 Useful Components Of A Low Calorie Diet, 5.0 out of 5 based on 1 rating
JERUSALEM (AP) ? A powerful partner of Israel's prime minister says sanctions and negotiations will not stop Iran from pursuing its disputed nuclear program.
Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says North Korea's nuclear test was an "obvious example" of diplomacy failing to curb a nuclear program.
Lieberman told Army Radio on Wednesday that "anyone who thinks sanctions or negotiations will stop Iran is wrong."
Iran, like North Korea, is under stiff sanctions and negotiations with the West over its nuclear program have stalled.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu often hints about a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Lieberman stepped down from his post two months ago after he was indicted for breach of trust in a fraud and money-laundering case. But he remains a powerful lawmaker and Netanyahu's top political ally.
This is my Valentine?s Day column, and it?s not about how to save on flowers or where to buy the top ten gifts guaranteed to impress your sweetheart.
No, just as couples come up with their own holiday traditions, I think they should come up with their own financial traditions.
Sounds extremely romantic, yes, but bear with me: I?ve been happily married for almost 17 years, and my wife and I had our first date just before Valentine?s Day, 1995.
Going through changes
When my wife and I were first married, in 1996, we knew almost nothing about managing our money. We knew we wanted to combine our incomes and not keep track of whose money was whose, so we threw all our income into a checking account and used that account to pay our bills, shop for groceries, pay for movie night, and save what was left over.
That didn?t work, of course. We never had any leftover money any more than we had leftover cookies. We didn?t have anything budgeted for unexpected expenses. Sometimes we forgot that we had a bill coming in that would drain our account long before our next payday.
Then I read a?short article?by a guy named Greg. I don?t know his last name, and I wouldn?t recommend taking financial advice from some random guy on the internet (uh oh). But this article, about what he called the Stackbacks budget system, appealed to me immediately, and my wife wanted to try it, too.
Here?s the short version of Stackbacks: You set up two checking accounts. All your income goes into the first one, and you use that account to pay your recurring monthly bills and contribute to savings goals.
Then you set up an automatic recurring transfer from that account to a second account, and use the second account for groceries, dining, entertainment, and small household expenses. In other words, you give yourself an allowance.
It?s enough to make you feel like a kid again: sure, you can screw up by spending your whole allowance on something dumb, but there?s always another allowance coming next week.
That?s the system we used for years, until we realized we could do better.
Yours, Mine, and Ours
Most weeks, the daily spending account worked just fine. My wife and I would go out into the world with our debit cards and come home with delicious ingredients and receipts to be entered daily into Quicken.
Some weeks, however, one spouse would swoop in, eBay-style, and spend all the money before the week was over. The other spouse would get sulky about this. (Honestly, we took turns filling these roles.)
It took us way too long to figure out that no amount of fraught conversation could solve this problem as well as a simple procedural change: like King Solomon, we split the daily spending account in two.
Because I do most of the grocery shopping, my account gets a bigger weekly allowance; if my wife goes on a major Trader Joe?s excursion, sometimes she asks to take my card, and that?s fine.
Other than that, however, we can spend freely from our accounts without running anything by the other person. Our bill-paying account is still ?our money,? and all of our paychecks get deposited there.
This system has cut down on petty (pun intended) money conversations significantly.
It?s my fault that it took so long to work this system out, because somehow I got the idea that separate accounts would be the equivalent of separate beds, and real couples sit down and talk about their money problems rather than siloing their money off so they can spend furtively.
First you mock the system?
This is nuts, of course. We?re talking about grocery money.
Financial advice is like parenting advice. Some of it is absolutely universal: put your baby down to sleep face-up, strap them into a carseat, and don?t let them day-trade stocks. Most of it, however, is something you figure out through trial and (lots of) error.
When you read about credit cards (use them for everything! never use them ever!), saving, budgeting, or any other personal finance topics, it?s hard to distinguish whether the author is talking about principles or a process.
Staying out of high-interest debt is a principle: it?s good advice for everyone. How to get there and stay there is a process.
Everyone insists their system is the best, but they can?t all be right, unless you understand that they?re actually saying, ?This is the system that works?for me.?Give it a try and see if it works for you, too. If not, try something else.?
The system we?ve come up with for our family probably won?t work for yours. In fact, I?m betting our system strikes you as weird and overly complicated, just like your some of your friends? parenting moves.
But it works for us, at least until we invent the next wrinkle, and given that we?ve been married for 17 years already, plenty of wrinkles lie ahead.
P.S.: ?Yours, Mine, and Ours? is not only the name of a movie and a family spending plan. It?s also the title of one of the most romantic albums I know, a 2003 release by the Pernice Brothers full of beautiful, catchy tunes, and sad songs that make you happy.
Find it?on Spotify?or wherever you buy music, and listen to it with your sweetie.
Matthew Amster-Burton is a?personal finance?columnist at Mint.com. Find him on Twitter?@Mint_Mamster.
Endless Alphabet from Callaway Digital Arts is one of those children's apps that you know is going to be a hit with your kids as soon as you open it. It has bouncy, eye-catching graphics and fantastic sound effects that grab your child's attention and hold it long enough for them to learn their letters and some new words.
The home screen in the app is a large, smiling cartoon character whose mouth holds the words for each letter in the alphabet. Each letter has at least one word, and the words are challenging for the pre-K crowd that is targeted in this app. Most words in the app are common, but complex words like sticky, tangle and umbrella. This is not a Run, Spot, Run type of app, which is a bonus as it teaches letters and enhances your child's vocabulary at the same time.
After your child selects a word, the word is spoken and all of the letters in the word are scattered on the screen. Children must then select a letter and drag it to its position in the word. When a child taps on a letter, the letter begins to shake, animations appear and the app repeats the sound of the letter. When the letter is dropped into its correct position in the word, the app then says the name of the letter. I love the combo of animation, phonetics and letter-learning provided by Endless Alphabet -- it's entertaining and educational at the same time.
After your child spells the word, the app speaks the word out loud and then explains what the word means on a level that a young child would understand. There's also a cute animation that accompanies this explanation. Just like everything else in Endless Alphabet, the vocabulary lesson is well-crafted.
Endless Alphabet launched with one word per letter, and the developer is regularly adding new words to the app. Parents will appreciate that there are no ads in the app and the settings are locked down from tap-happy children. Settings are minimal and only contain the contact information for the developer. To access the settings, parents have to enter the numbers spelled out in an easy word-based captcha.
Endless Alphabet is available for free from the iOS App Store.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? An earthquake was detected Tuesday in North Korea just north of a site where the country has conducted nuclear tests, providing strong indication that Pyongyang has gone ahead with a highly anticipated third test. There was, however, no confirmation of the test.
The South Korean Defense Ministry, which raised its military alert level after the quake, said it was trying to determine whether it was a test. Nuclear blasts can create tremors but they are distinct from those caused by natural earthquakes.
The U.N. organization monitoring nuclear tests says it has detected an "unusual seismic event" in North Korea.
The U.S. Geological Survey as well as earthquake monitoring stations in South Korea detected an earthquake just north of a site where North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in 2009.
"There is a high possibility that North Korea has conducted a nuclear test," said Chi Heoncheol, an earthquake specialist at the government-funded Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. Chi said a magnitude 3.9 magnitude earthquake and a magnitude 4.5 earthquake were detected in the North's 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.
South Korean, U.S. and Japanese seismic monitoring agencies put the magnitude of Tuesday's quake at 4.7, 4.9 and 5.2 respectively.
"We think it is possible it came about as a result of a nuclear test by North Korea from looking at past cases," Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference Tuesday, noting that they were still gathering information.
The United States and its allies have been on edge since North Korea said last month it will conduct its third nuclear test to protest toughened sanctions over a December rocket launch that the U.N. called a cover for a banned missile test.
North Korea's politburo vowed to continue firing "powerful long-range rockets," but a statement by state media Tuesday made no mention of a nuclear test.
North Korea's National Defense Commission said Jan. 23 that the United States was its prime target for a nuclear test and long-range rocket launches. North Korea accuses Washington of leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its December rocket launch.
Last October, a spokesman from the commission told state media that the country had built a missile capable of striking the United States, but did not provide further details. A missile featured in an April 2012 military parade appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, but its authenticity has not been verified by foreign experts.
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Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee in Seoul and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Shortcuts are not the preferred path for health and well being. When you want to reap a good harvest, you have to sow appropriately. A low calorie diet has been an important component of weight loss and healthy living since ages.
