92% The Gatekeepers

All Critics (71) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (65) | Rotten (6)

The film and its talking head participants paint the picture in both broad strokes and fine detail.

Whatever one's political stripe regarding Israel, it's hard to dispute the impressions and perspective of the film's six eyewitnesses.

The level of candor here may not satisfy hard-liners of either stripe, but it can help viewers begin to formulate new questions about the philosophical, strategic and moral challenges of conflict, in particular "wars on terror."

Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games.

It offers startlingly honest insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from some of those who called the shots.

As a political testament, the result is revealing and important.

Moreh employs a direct interviewing style, reminiscent of Errol Morris' work, to get the men to talk about their days leading Shin Bet.

Moreh gets some startling confessions and insights from each man but also misses the opportunity to truly challenge his subjects on their regard for democracy, basic human rights and their own accountability.

Director Dror Moreh doesn't rest on his scoop

A powerful look inside the Israeli defense establishment

A deadly serious and detailed examination of and meditation upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Gatekeepers makes no attempt to find a silver lining.

The rule of surveillance is to keep quiet and let others do the talking. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers flips the script, to astonishing effect, giving voice to the retired directors of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.

An up-close and personal look at the psychology of war -- their war and, by extension, all war.

A riveting firsthand account of how legitimate security concerns can lead to policies considered extreme and even immoral by the people administering them.

Extraordinary...not only an engrossing first-hand account of Israel's Palestinian policies over time, but one that may have lessons to teach both Israeli leaders and other nations confronting those they identify as terrorists.

Unprecedented and deeply unsettling, it offers little hope for a lasting peace in that war-torn region.

For its candor and impact, deserves to be seen and discussed.

An often remarkable Israeli documentary about Shin Bet, the country's internal security agency.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_gatekeepers_2012/

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APNewsBreak: Gas trade group seeks fracking probe

FILE - In this file photo of Jan. 17, 2013, Yoko Ono, left, and her son Sean Lennon visit a fracking site in Franklin Forks, Pa., during a bus tour of natural-gas drilling sites in northeastern Pennsylvania. Ono and Lennon have formed a group called ?Artists Against Fracking,? which has become the main celebrity driven anti-fracking organization. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - In this file photo of Jan. 17, 2013, Yoko Ono, left, and her son Sean Lennon visit a fracking site in Franklin Forks, Pa., during a bus tour of natural-gas drilling sites in northeastern Pennsylvania. Ono and Lennon have formed a group called ?Artists Against Fracking,? which has become the main celebrity driven anti-fracking organization. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group formed by Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon, is violating the state's lobbying law.

The complaint obtained by The Associated Press was made by the Independent Oil & Gas Association to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

The energy trade group based its request for an investigation on an AP report that found that Artists Against Fracking and its advocates didn't register as lobbyists. Registration requires several disclosures about spending and activities.

A spokesman for Artists Against Fracking says the group's activities are protected because they were made during a public comment period. He also says celebrities involved in the group are protected because they are longtime activists, not lobbyists.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-30-Gas%20Drilling-Celebrities/id-8bf6492bf23f45289fe860500166181d

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The South: A near-solid block against 'Obamacare'

ATLANTA (AP) ? As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, including from governors who lead some of the nation's poorest and unhealthiest states.

"Not in South Carolina," Gov. Nikki Haley declared at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. "We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama's watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever."

Widening Medicaid insurance rolls, a joint federal-state program for low-income Americans, is an anchor of the law Obama signed in 2010. But states get to decide whether to take the deal, and from Virginia to Texas ? a region encompassing the old Confederacy and Civil War border states ? Florida's Rick Scott is the only Republican governor to endorse expansion, and he faces opposition from his GOP colleagues in the legislature. Tennessee's Bill Haslam, the Deep South's last governor to take a side, added his name to the opposition on Wednesday.

Haley offers the common explanation, saying expansion will "bust our budgets." But the policy reality is more complicated. The hospital industry and other advocacy groups continue to tell GOP governors that expansion would be a good arrangement, and there are signs that some Republicans are trying to find ways to expand insurance coverage under the law.

Haslam told Tennessee lawmakers that he'd rather use any new money to subsidize private insurance. That's actually the approach of another anchor of Obama's law: insurance exchanges where Americans can buy private policies with premium subsidies from taxpayers.

Yet for now, governors' rejection of Medicaid expansion will leave large swaths of Americans without coverage because they make too much money to qualify for Medicaid as it exists but not enough to get the subsidies to buy insurance in the exchanges. Many public health studies show that the same population suffers from higher-than-average rates of obesity, smoking and diabetes ? variables that yield bad health outcomes and expensive hospital care.

"Many of the citizens who would benefit the most from this live in the reddest of states with the most intense opposition," said Drew Altman, president of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

So why are these states holding out? The short-term calculus seems heavily influenced by politics.

Haley, Haslam, Nathan Deal of Georgia and Robert Bentley of Alabama face re-election next year. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is up for re-election in 2015. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is term-limited at home but may seek the presidency in 2016. While they all govern GOP-leaning states, they still must safeguard their support among Republican voters who dislike large-scale federal initiatives in general and distrust Obama in particular. Florida's Scott, the South's GOP exception on expansion, faces a different dynamic. He won just 49 percent of the vote in 2010 and must face an electorate that twice supported Obama.

A South Carolina legislator put it bluntly earlier this year. State Rep. Kris Crawford told a business journal that he supports expansion, but said electoral math is the trump card. "It is good politics to oppose the black guy in the White House right now, especially for the Republican Party," he said.

Whit Ayers, a leading Republican pollster, was more measured, but offered the same bottom line. "This law remains toxic among Republican primary voters," he told The Associated Press.

At the Tennessee Hospital Association, president Craig Becker has spent months trying to break through that barrier as he travels to civic and business groups across Tennessee. "It's really hard for some of them to separate something that has the name 'Obamacare' on it from what's going to be best for the state," he said, explaining that personality driven politics are easier to understand than the complicated way that the U.S. pays for health care.

Medicaid is financed mostly by Congress, though states have to put in their own money to qualify for the cash from Washington. The federal amount is determined by a state's per-capita income, with poorer states getting more help. On average in 2012, the feds paid 57 cents of every Medicaid dollar. It was 74 cents in Mississippi, 71 in Kentucky, 70 in Arkansas and South Carolina, 68 in Alabama. Those numbers would be even higher counting bonuses from Obama's 2009 stimulus bill.

Obama's law mandated that states open Medicaid to everyone with household income up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate ? $15,420 a year for an individual or $31,812 for a family of four. The federal government would cover all costs of new Medicaid patients from 2014 to 2016 and pick up most of the price tag after that, requiring states to pay up to 10 percent. The existing Medicaid population would continue under the old formula. In its ruling on the law, the Supreme Court left the details alone, but declared that states could choose whether to expand.

Hospital and physician lobbying groups around the country have endorsed a bigger Medicaid program. Becker said he explains on his road show that the Obama law paired Medicaid growth with cuts to payments to hospitals for treating the uninsured. Just as they do with Medicaid insurance, states already must contribute their own money in order to get federal help with those so-called "uncompensated care" payments.

The idea was instead of paying hospitals directly, states and Congress could spend that money on Medicaid and have those new beneficiaries ? who now drive costs with preventable hospital admissions and expensive emergency room visits ? use the primary care system. But the Supreme Court ruling creates a scenario where hospitals can lose existing revenue with getting the replacement cash Congress intended, all while still having to treat the uninsured patients who can't get coverage.

Becker said that explanation has gotten local chambers of commerce across Tennessee to endorse expansion. "These are rock-ribbed Republicans," he said. "But they all scratch their heads and say, 'Well, if that's the case, then of course we do this.'"

In Louisiana, Jindal's health care agency quietly released an analysis saying the changes could actually save money over time. But the Republican Governors Association chairman is steadfast in his opposition. In Georgia, Deal answers pressure from his state's hospital association with skepticism about projected "uncompensated care" savings and Congress' pledge to finance 90 percent of the new Medicaid costs.

Altman, the Kaiser foundation leader, predicted that opposition will wane over time.

Arkansas Republicans, who oppose Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's call for expansion, have floated the same idea as Haslam: pushing would-be Medicaid recipients into the insurance exchanges. Jindal, using his RGA post, has pushed the Obama administration to give states more "flexibility" in how to run Medicaid.

Deal convinced Georgia lawmakers this year to let an appointed state board set a hospital industry tax to generate some of the state money that supports Medicaid. That fee ? which 49 states use in some way ? is the same tool that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is using to cover her state's Medicaid expansion. Georgia Democrats and some hospital executives have quietly mused that Deal is leaving himself an option to widen Medicaid in his expected term.

"These guys are looking for ways to do this while still saying they are against 'Obamacare,'" Altman said. "As time goes by, we'll see this law acquire a more bipartisan complexion."

-----

Follow Barrow on Twitter (at)BillBarrowAP.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-near-solid-block-against-obamacare-191744666.html

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Brain scans might predict future criminal behavior

Friday, March 29, 2013

A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison.

The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.

The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region.

"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."

The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison.

"These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective."

The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests.

"People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest."

The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre."

Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders.

###

You can view the paper by clicking here: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219302110.

Duke University: http://www.duke.edu

Thanks to Duke University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 88 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127523/Brain_scans_might_predict_future_criminal_behavior

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Buster Posey gets $167M, 9-year deal from Giants

San Francisco Giants' Buster Posey removes his cap during batting practice before an exhibition spring training baseball game against the Oakland Athletics, Thursday, March 28, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

San Francisco Giants' Buster Posey removes his cap during batting practice before an exhibition spring training baseball game against the Oakland Athletics, Thursday, March 28, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

San Francisco Giants' Buster Posey (28) swings for an RBI single off Oakland Athletics' Tommy Milone in the third inning of an exhibition spring training baseball game Thursday, March 28, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The San Francisco Giants have rewarded NL MVP and batting champion Buster Posey with a $167 million, nine-year contract.

Posey's deal, announced Friday by the reigning World Series champions, includes a club option for 2022 that could raise the value to $186 million over 10 years.

The agreement is the longest for a catcher and the largest in Giants history, surpassing Matt Cain's $127.5 million, six-year contract.

Posey had been due to make $8 million this year. He instead gets a $7 million signing bonus, with $5 million payable Oct. 15 and the remainder Jan. 15, and his 2013 salary is reduced to $3 million.

The agreement includes a full no-trade clause.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-29-BBN-Giants-Posey/id-ff2fef0012a54bc185998c5c7f1ce884

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ADA: Don't let procedural hurdles stop accommodations process ...

Employees with disabilities have the right to request reasonable ADA accommodations. Punishing them for making such a request can be grounds for a retaliation lawsuit?even if no accommodations were possible or due.

Recent case: Earnest was an operator in an oil refinery. He worked on what?s called a high-speed line, a job that required climbing, balancing, stooping, kneeling, pushing, lifting and grasping, as well as using a variety of tools.

In the year before he was terminated, Earnest experienced several medical problems, including carpal tunnel syndrome, neck pain, back pain and weakness in his legs. He took an extended sick leave to deal with those problems and then wanted to return to work. His doctors, however, wouldn?t provide a full release.

Earnest explained he wanted a light-duty assignment, but a company representative told him none was available. Earnest was eager to ?discuss whether any accommodations were possible, so he went to the plant.

Once there, he discovered that his security badge, which allowed him access to the facility, had been deactivated. Rather than call security and get an escort, he asked another employee to swipe him in. That was a violation of security rules.

Earnest never got to discuss accommodations; instead he was escorted off the premises for an alleged security breach. Then he was fired.

Earnest sued, alleging failure to accommodate his disability, as well as retaliation for requesting reasonable accommodations.

The refinery argued that it didn?t have to make accommodations be??cause doing so would have re??quired it to redesign Earnest?s job. It also argued that it had fired Earnest for legitimate reasons?namely entering the facility without authority and using another em??ployee?s access badge.

The court agreed that Earnest wasn?t entitled to an accommodation because he clearly couldn?t do his old job and because employers aren?t required to create new positions as an accommodation.

However, it ordered a trial on the retaliation claim. The court reasoned that Earnest engaged in protected activity when he tried to enter the facility to discuss possible accommodations. It also reasoned that termination under the circumstances could be retaliation, noting that the rule against swiping in on a co-worker?s badge had rarely been enforced.

A jury will decide if the purported reason (unauthorized access) was merely an excuse to punish Earnest for requesting accommodation. (Hammond v. Jacobs Field Services, No. 12-30222, 5th Cir., 2012)

Final note: A better approach to the situation would have been to escort Earnest off the premises, but set up a time to discuss possible accommodations later. By treating him with dignity, such a move would have defused a tense situation and shown the employer?s good-faith efforts to help a disabled worker return to work.

The end result on accommodations might have been the same?determining that no accommodation was feasible. Earnest could then have been terminated for a clearly legitimate reason, since no work was available that he could perform.

Remember, the accommodation process is supposed to be an interactive one.

Escorting the employee off the premises because he didn?t have an appointment and essentially slipped in isn?t what Congress had in mind when it enacted the ADA.

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OptiTrack debuts $3,700 PRIME 17W mocap cam for small spaces

Independent creators keen on motion capture have had affordable solutions like cheaper sensors and Kinect-based implementations for awhile now, but a large space for moving around has usually been required. OptiTrack has come up with an answer to that problem, however, in the form of the PRIME 17W mocap camera that it introduced at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The 1.7-megapixel lens has a 70-degree by 51-degree field of view that promises to capture motion in a relatively small space, which also means you need fewer cameras to get a full 360-degree shot. Other features include a global shutter, high-speed 360 FPS capture and low distortion, enabling UAV and sports tracking. At $3,700, it's still not exactly cheap, but it's certainly affordable enough for indie engineers and animators with space constraints to get started in the mocap biz.

Gallery: OptiTrack PRIME 17W

Filed under: Cameras, Gaming

Comments

Source: OptiTrack

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/LJWTAfSSJpw/

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New system to restore wetlands could reduce massive floods, aid crops

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Engineers at Oregon State University have developed a new interactive system to create networks of small wetlands in Midwest farmlands, which could help the region prevent massive spring floods and also retain water and mitigate droughts in a warming climate.

The planning tool, which is being developed and tested in a crop-dominated watershed near Indianapolis, is designed to identify the small areas best suited to wetland development, optimize their location and size, and restore a significant portion of the region's historic water storage ability by using only a small fraction of its land.

Using this approach, the researchers found they could capture the runoff from 29 percent of a watershed using only 1.5 percent of the entire area.

The findings were published in Ecological Engineering, a professional journal, and a website is now available at http://wrestore.iupui.edu/ that allows users to apply the principles to their own land.

The need for new approaches to assist farmers and agencies to work together and use science-based methods is becoming critical, experts say. Massive floods and summer droughts have become more common and intense in the Midwest because of climate change and decades of land management that drains water rapidly into rivers via tile drains.

"The lands of the Midwest, which is one of the great food producing areas of the world, now bear little resemblance to their historic form, which included millions of acres of small lakes and wetlands that have now been drained," said Meghna Babbar-Sebens, an assistant professor of civil and construction engineering at Oregon State. "Agriculture, deforestation, urbanization and residential development have all played a role.

"We have to find some way to retain and slowly release water, both to use it for crops and to prevent flooding," Babbar-Sebens said. "There's a place for dams and reservoirs but they won't solve everything. With increases in runoff, what was once thought to be a 100-year flood event is now happening more often.

"Historically, wetlands in Indiana and other Midwestern states were great at intercepting large runoff events and slowing down the flows," she said. "But Indiana has lost more than 85 percent of the wetlands it had prior to European settlement."

An equally critical problem is what appears to be increasing frequency of summer drought, she said, which may offer a solid motivation for the region's farmers to become involved. The problem is not just catastrophic downstream flooding in the spring, but also the loss of water and soil moisture in the summer that can be desperately needed in dry years.

The solution to both issues, scientists say, is to "re-naturalize" the hydrology of a large section of the United States. Working toward this goal was a research team from Oregon State University, Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, the Wetlands Institute in New Jersey, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They used engineering principles, historic analysis and computer simulations to optimize the effectiveness of any land use changes, so that minimal land use alteration would offer farmers and landowners a maximum of benefits.

In the Midwest, many farmers growing corn, soybeans and other crops have placed "tiles" under their fields to rapidly drain water into streams, which dries the soil and allows for earlier planting. Unfortunately, it also concentrates pollutants, increases flooding and leaves the land drier during the summer. Without adequate rain, complete crop losses can occur.

Experts have also identified alternate ways to help, including the use of winter cover crops and grass waterways that help retain and more slowly release water. And the new computer systems can identify the best places for all of these approaches to be used.

###

Oregon State University: http://www.orst.edu

Thanks to Oregon State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 33 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127505/New_system_to_restore_wetlands_could_reduce_massive_floods__aid_crops

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10 Anti-Aging Secrets - Health Guide to Beauty and Skincare ...

It is a dream for sore eyes if the aging process can be delayed. Is it possible to dawdle the aging process? The key to this lies in the foods we devour. There are various foods for consumption that can supplement the diet with nutrients that are loaded with anti aging properties.

Recognizing the foodstuffs that should be eaten is a way of combating the ageing process. Eating a diet splashed with sufficient anti-ageing nutrients can help in holding up the negative effects of the aging process.

Let us list a few secrets have a supple, wrinkle-free and glowing complexion even as you advance into the years.

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Healthy eating

Our skin is a reflection of our diet. Whatever we eat shows up on our faces. Diet has a very important role to play in the anti-aging process. The food taken in by the mouth provides the body with all the various nutrients needed to stay fit and healthy.

The largest organ in our human body, the skin shows off whatever we have put inside the body. Each meal makes a difference so eat right every time. The body relies on nutrients all the time. To keep this up one needs to eat two portions of a fruity diet daily. Fruits are enriched with antioxidants, large amounts of water content and fiber. These three ingredients of the fruits are a blessing for the human body.

Seeds and nuts contain essential fatty acids and are recognized as grand anti-ageing foods. The human beings are incapable of producing EFA?s (essential fatty acids) in the body and have to depend on the nuts for them. EFA?s assist the human body in producing cell membranes that is essential for shielding the cell from harmful substances.

Damaged cell membranes lead to poor cell growth, reduced cell renewal and a speedy ageing as the cells can be attacked by harmful free radicals. EFA?s are also found in abundant quantities in oily fishes like the salmon, cod, and the mackerel. Avocados also are full of EFA?s.

A high protein diet of good quality like eggs, meat and fishes can help ward off ageing temporarily. Proteins are the building blocks and help the body to manufacture new cells and repair itself. Lack of protein leads to weathering of the body as the repair mechanism is not proper.

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Lists of anti-aging foods

Anti-aging foods consist of Seeds of pumpkins, sesame etc, Raw walnuts, cashew nuts, almonds, Green tea, Avocado, Green vegetables, melons, and fish. Berries are a rich of antioxidants and remember Water is the elixir of life.

Last and not the least don?t forget to exercise. Exercise promotes longevity, slows down ageing, and helps you stay fit.

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Effect of exercise on DNA and aging

Exercise positively affects the DNA as it retards the aging. People who exercised energetically for at least 3 hours every week had more elongated telomeres showing an age 9 years younger than people who led a stagnant and sedentary life style.

Telomeres are the guarding ends of the chromosomes that condense with age. As the length of the telomeres shorten it leads to various age related ailments. The stress on the body tissues increase as the telomeres need to perform properly.

The body is then affected by illnesses like cancer, blood pressure, mental problems and a lot more. Damage to the body due to free radicals is reduces greatly by exercising the body. This way the body can maintain health instead of focusing on the repairing process.

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Free Radicals/Antioxidants

A lot of damage and distortion takes place on a cellular level due to the free radicals. The protein that maintains the body?s elasticity is called collagen. The free radicals cause the supple collagen to become firm and hard.

This shows in the form hard skin. Free radicals are found in a diet high in fats, refined carbohydrates, artificial sweeteners, preservatives and additives. These destructing radicals have to bring under control and this is possible only by antioxidants.

Antioxidants neutralize the free radicals. Vegetables and fruits are a treasure of antioxidants specially if consumed in the raw form. Berries and pomegranate have a lot of antioxidants.

Smoking and drinking, a large amount of alcohol, leads to the buildup of free radicals. Overexposure of the human body to direct sunlight leads to the production of free radicals.

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Vitamin Supplements

The diet should be rich in Vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which can work miracles in the fight against the aging process.

There are various nutritional supplements that fulfill all the antioxidant requirements in one glass. These are available in juice powder form that provides the body with nutrients that are necessary for the body to function to full capacity.

They take care of the overall cellular health providing the optimum dosage of essential dosages of beta carotene and pro-vitamin A. Vitamin C, Vitamin E and essential fatty acids are imperative for the development and mending of collagen so it is necessary to take its dose daily. A Vitamin C pill can restore the glow to the skin within days.

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Water is the elixir of life

Drink plenty water to restock lost liquids in the body .This leads to hydration of Skin.? Drinking water eliminates toxins from the human body .The toxins have a negative consequence on general health and long life.

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Hormones

Hormone imbalance can bring about destruction to the skin. Hormone imbalance can cause severe skin conditions like acne, dry skin, dull, grey looking skin, eczema, pigmentation and oily skin. The hormone levels of estrogen, testosterone, HGH and CoQ10 need to be assessed by a doctor.

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Detoxification of skin

Detox the skin after a few months in order to maintain the youth and elasticity of the skin. For this eat raw vegetables and fruits for two days. Drink lots of water. The stomach gets a rest and this detox diet reduces stress on the body getting rid of the toxins at the same time. The energy levels are maintained as normal.

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Stress should be reduced

Stress leads to aging are a well documented fact. It dwindles blood flow and food to the Skin leading to a sickly look, hair loss, and brittle nails. Stress leads to free radicals that can injure the human body on a cellular stage. Stress puts off our bodies and it can?t operate optimally. Stress robs the body of the essential nutrients.

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Allergies, Food Sensitivities and Intolerances

Food allergies can mess with eating habits and Thwart one from attaining a nutritionally best diet. Wheat and gluten intolerance can give a feeling of bloatedness and lead to irritable bowel syndrome and constipation. Diary sensitivities can be the ground for eczema and asthma.

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Scientific advances

Medical researchers are continuously finding new theories and treatments to reduce the speed of aging.

Laser resurfacing, Wrinkle Injections and creams lead to an upliftment in the skin.

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Antioxidants:

Antioxidants are skin-care nutrients that can combat aging by getting rid of free radicals capable of gobbling up the collagen in the skin.

Source: http://www.healthburp.com/anti-aging-secrets.html

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Compelled To Forever Wander, The Nomad Is An Espresso Machine That Gathers No Moss

It's not as compact as an Aeropress, but the Nomad looks like a solid way to get an espresso shot from a small device. The tiny machine, which is currently on Kickstarter, boasts the same principles used in full-sized espresso machines. The Nomad is just a lot smaller, more efficient, and doesn't require any power making it a portable machine -- hence the name. The company is looking for $100,000 on Kickstarter. Pledge $165 to pre-order a Nomad. It's available in black and green. I'm in for one.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DDYl0e1WByk/

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Microsoft showcases Windows Phone middleware partnerships at GDC, we go hands-on (video)

Building on yesterday's announcement that Temple Run and several other games are coming to Windows Phone, Microsoft's been actively courting developers at GDC 2013. To that end, the company's booth showcases several games that highlight cross-platform development and middleware. Now that WP8 and Windows 8 share the same NT kernel, DirectX APIs and tools, it's easier than ever to write games that use the same code base for both platforms. Microsoft is sweetening the deal with a few significant middleware partnerships -- Unity, Marmalade and Havok, to be specific. We talked with Larry Lieberman, Senior Product Manager for Windows Phone development, who was kind enough to explain what these partnerships mean for developers and to give us a tour of the games. Hit the break for our hands-on video.

Gallery: Windows Phone middleware demo at GDC 2013

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Gaming, Laptops, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/RMoP53fp7Sk/

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Climates Where Geothermal Heating and Cooling Make Sense

Alright everyone, our topic of conversation today is geothermal heating and cooling (as you can infer from the title).? But let?s assume that most of us have a pretty solid understanding of how it works and move onto a conversation focused on where it works best, and if there is such a place.

Just joining in and need a reminder of how it works?? We?ll catch you up before moving on.? Geothermal heating and cooling consists of capturing heat found in the earth to heat or cool a home.? Note that this process also works with water, whether it?s for home use or for a pool.? More or less these systems just collect heat from the ground and redirect it into a home.? The reverse process entails harvesting heat from the air and redirecting it to the ground to cool a home.

Trust us that this is a very efficient system endorsed by many.? Now onto the issue at hand:? where to use geothermal heating and cooling?

The Best Option

It?s an intuitive concept that geothermal heating works best in particularly hot areas.? In fact, I?d imagine that the whole idea was conceived in such a climate.? Then let?s agree that it operates with the most ease in the following areas:? anywhere near tectonic plate boundaries where there?s an elevated level of volcanic activity and resulting hot ground water.

Everywhere Else

With that said, studies have shown that geothermal is the most efficient heating and cooling system across climate zones.? Keep in mind that heat can be extracted from nearly anything but works most efficiently when the object is hot.? This means that even those areas susceptible to extreme seasonal weather, think scorching, blazing summers or harsh, frigid winters, are candidates for geothermal heating.

Why is that?? Because warm water is accessible several feet below the surface across the globe.? Much of Western United States, Iceland, and Japan all have notable geothermal resources found fairly shallow underground.? This warm water can then be extracted with a pump and transferred to a building.? Experts say that in most locations the ground maintains a consistent temperature of 45-75 degrees Fahrenheit.? It does this by absorbing the sun?s heat as it strikes the ground.

Here?s an interesting anecdote:? geothermal heating has even been employed in the exceptionally chilly conditions found in Iceland.? Several cities there use pumps to melt snow and ice on roads and walkways.

So if you?re looking for a more natural method of air conditioning, listen up!? Some areas capture water or steam from nearby hot springs to fuel their geothermal systems.? And in especially hot, dry areas the ground itself can be a heat exchanger.? The system will work better in such hot areas if the rooms are well sealed and insulated so as not to lose the cool air easily.

Selecting the Best System

There is another point to address:? you can further improve the efficiency of geothermal heating regardless of your local climate by choosing the most compatible system.? To do so, consult a professional?s opinion.? Factors such as climate, available space, and soil condition will be considered.? But before that meeting let?s go over the basic options.

You can adopt either an open-looped system or a closed-looped system.? Our first option, open-looped systems, uses water as a heat exchanger; it simply flows through the system then returns to the ground.? The other choice, closed-looped, circulates a substance containing antifreeze through underground tubing, making it a natural match for colder climates.? It can be configured in several ways each of which has particular advantages; for instance, a vertical set-up is ideal for small sites.

Now that we all have a better grasp on the logistics of implementation, we can feel confident that regardless of our location geothermal heating is a viable and wise decision.

By Jessica Christensen

As a prolific writer, Jessica embraces opportunities to increase her beloved readership?s understanding of environmentally friendly practices.? Her hope is that her audience will see that practices such as natural air conditioning are not limited to just air conditioning Utah, but residents everywhere.? If you are interested in reducing your carbon footprint and abandoning traditional appliances which waste too much energy, check out some more of her articles by following her on Google +.

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Source: http://www.ebestproducts.com/2013/03/climates-geothermal-heating-cooling-sense/

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Obesity may be linked to microorganisms living in the gut

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

How much a person eats may be only one of many factors that determines weight gain. A recent Cedars-Sinai study suggests that a breath test profile of microorganisms inhabiting the gut may be able to tell doctors how susceptible a person is to developing obesity.

The study, published online Thursday by The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, shows that people whose breath has high concentrations of both hydrogen and methane gasses are more likely to have a higher body mass index and higher percentage of body fat.

"This is the first large-scale human study to show an association between gas production and body weight ? and this could prove to be another important factor in understanding one of the many causes of obesity", said lead author Ruchi Mathur, MD, director of the Diabetes Outpatient Treatment and Education Center in the Division of Endocrinology at Cedars-Sinai.

The study, which will also appear in JCEM's April 2013 issue, analyzed the breath content of 792 people. Based on the breath tests, four patterns emerged. The subjects either had normal breath content, higher concentrations of methane, higher levels of hydrogen, or higher levels of both gases. Those who tested positive for high concentrations of both gases had significantly higher body mass indexes and higher percentages of body fat.

The presence of methane is associated with a microorganism called Methanobrevibacter smithii. This organism is responsible for the majority of methane production in the human host.

"Usually, the microorganisms living in the digestive tract benefit us by helping convert food into energy. However, when this particular organism? M. smithii ? becomes overabundant, it may alter this balance in a way that causes someone to be more likely to gain weight," Mathur said.

These organisms scavenge hydrogen from other microbes and use it to produce methane ? which is eventually exhaled by the host. Researchers theorize this interaction helps neighboring hydrogen-producing bacteria thrive and extract nutrients from food more efficiently. Over time, this may contribute to weight gain.

"Essentially, it could allow a person to harvest more calories from their food," Mathur said.

In an ongoing study funded by the American Diabetes Association, Mathur is working to confirm the link between M. smithii, obesity and pre-diabetic conditions by determining how efficiently people digest food before and after eliminating the microorganism with a targeted dose of antibiotic. Participants who have evidence of methane on their breath are given a standard diet over three days, undergo an oral glucose challenge, and swallow a "smart pill" to track how fast the food moves through their bodies. In addition, their stool is collected and sent for calorie analysis allowing researchers to determine how many calories are being harvested during digestion. Participants then repeat the same tests after taking the antibiotic regimen to see if elimination of the organism results in measureable changes.

"This should let us know just how energy balance is affected by M. smthii," Mathur said, "We're only beginning to understand the incredibly complex communities that live inside of us. If we can understand how they affect our metabolism, we may be able to work with these microscopic communities to positively impact our health."

###

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center: http://www.csmc.edu

Thanks to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127481/Obesity_may_be_linked_to_microorganisms_living_in_the_gut

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Restaurant Uses Twitter To Call Out No-Shows - Business Insider

Trendy Los Angeles restaurant Red Medicine recently stirred up controversy for calling out no-shows on Twitter.

Restaurant manager Noah Ellis has taken responsibility for the rant.

Here are some of his tweets. Names of the customers have been blurred to protect their privacy:

?

Ellis talked to LA Eater about his rant.?

"It's always been a problem here (at the restaurant and in LA as a whole), but it's tricky -- those restaurants that overbook to protect themselves punish the guests who show up on time for their reservations, but not the people who no-show," Ellis told the blog. "I was frustrated, so I blew them up."

Some customers complained on Yelp that the rant was unprofessional.?

But Ellis hasn't backed down, instead continuing to defend himself against his critics on Twitter.?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/restaurant-uses-twitter-to-call-out-no-shows-2013-3

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Efforts to Resuscitate Extinct Species May Spawn a New Era of the Hybrid

FELLOW TRAVELER: Techniques from synthetic biology might allow scientists to recreate a living bird from the extinct passenger pigeon's DNA. Image: Louis Agassiz Fuertes

WASHINGTON, D.C.?A bird that once darkened the skies of the 19th-century U.S. no longer exists, except as well-preserved museum specimens bearing bits of DNA. An ambitious new effort aims to use the latest techniques of genetic manipulation to bring the passenger pigeon back, as North Dakotan Ben Novak, a would-be de-extinction scientist working on the Revive & Restore project at the Long Now Foundation, told the crowd at the TEDxDeExtinction event here on March 15.

"This [pigeon flock] was a biological storm that was rejuvenating resources and allowing other animals to thrive," Novak said of the storms of Ectopistes migratorius feces that used to fall like rain on the landscape of eastern North America. Plus, with the regrowth of forest on the east coast "there is more passenger pigeon habitat every year."

But if a bird looks like an extinct passenger pigeon, has some of the genetic code of the passenger pigeon, but does not act like a passenger pigeon because it is raised by other breeds and few in number: is it a true passenger pigeon? That is just one of the questions posed by the idea of de-extinction?deliberately resurrecting species killed off by human activity or inactivity. And that question may just challenge one of the fundamental concepts of biology: what determines a distinct species.

Welcome to the new era of the hybrid. Species have always been promiscuous and enjoyed porous boundaries, but synthetic biologists and other scientists seem set to blur those boundaries out of existence.

Tainted animals
The bison now repopulating the U.S. West?s plains bear the genetic traces of their cattle forebears, residue of an effort that began in the 19th century to breed an animal that could survive the brutal Great Plains winters and drink less water than European cows. Wolves racing through the western landscape with black coats instead of the traditional gray can thank ancestors that got frisky with dogs. And does a Florida panther that carries genes from the Texas cougar count as less of a panther, even if the effort is all that stands between the species and extinction?

"Purity is not found in species," argued Kent Redford, a conservation biologist and former chief scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society at the DeExtinction event. "We ourselves are not pure," bearing traces of genetic intermixing with Neandertals, Denisovans and perhaps other extinct hominids.

So what counts as a species then? Per the dictionary, a species is "a class of individuals having common attributes or designated by a common name." But biologists more precisely count species as a group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring. So the horse and donkey are species, although those aren't their species names, and the mule is?well, it's been a little unclear since Carl Linnaeus came up with the species designation in 1753. As a (usually) sterile hybrid, the mule doesn't count.

But mules certainly do live and cases of mule fertility have been reported from antiquity down to the present day. Mules have even been cloned?and now, with the development of techniques to cut and splice DNA almost at will, scientists might be able to remake the mule into a fertile hybrid. But first they would rather apply the technique to endangered or extinct animals, like the Pyrenean ibex known as the bucardo or the Asian wild cattle called the banteng.

Rise of the hybrid
When a new animal is born it bears a mixture of both parents? genetics. So what then is an animal that has parents from two different species? The term hybrid was first used to describe the offspring of a tame sow and a wild boar. Or, as Redford put it, "something humans wanted." But now hybrids often bear a linguistic taint, neither fish nor fowl?almost as bad as a genetically modified organism, which, of course, all commercial species now are to one extent or another.

But purity still exists in the wild. Or does it? Traffic fatalities have caused swallow wings to shorten to enable quicker takeoffs just as fishing pressure has caused many wild-caught fish species to shrink in size. Bacteria rapidly evolve resistance to our best antibiotics. Humanity directs evolution unconsciously?except when we do it consciously, introducing useful suites of genetic information like the ability to produce a toxin poisonous to insects inserted into crop plants that was originally made by a bacterium.

With crude technologies such as cloning, where an entire cell nucleus is swapped from one species to another, this has already been done to revive an endangered species. An ordinary cow gave birth to a banteng?Bos javanicus, a species of wild cattle from Asia?in 2003. Although the scientists involved were worried that the hybrid might look more like an ordinary cow, out popped a banteng that lived at the San Diego Zoo for seven years?a diminished life span but a life nonetheless. "It was surreal to see this exotic animal from the jungles of Southeast Asia born in an Iowa field that reeked of cow manure," recalled Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology, the company that helped achieve the feat.

Now new technologies such as an enzyme that can precisely cut DNA, known as Cas9 (for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated system 9) and also derived from a bacterium, may enable scientists to stitch strands of DNA in and out of the genetic code. Find the genes that make a mammoth different from an elephant?say, sebaceous glands, hair growth, extra hemoglobin in the blood to withstand cold temperatures, among other traits?insert those into a strand of elephant DNA, and begin to make mammoth sperm and eggs. Then impregnate the mammoth's closest living relative, the Asiatic elephant, and wait for a baby mammoth to be born.

Only it won't be a true mammoth, because its mother will have something to say about how those genes are expressed, from epigenetics to the micro biome. "A gene doesn't tell you how to read it and make an organism," noted biologist David Ehrenfeld of Rutgers University at the DeExtinction event. "The genetic code is more like a database than an instruction manual." In other words, even the best genetic transcript?something still out of reach for many extinct animals and plants?will not provide the detailed source code needed to build version 2.0 of the extinct organism. He added: "All the words of Hamlet are in the dictionary, but if I scan the dictionary, Hamlet does not fall out of it. A strand of DNA can be read in hundreds or even thousands of ways."

And then there's the danger of the favoritism of humans that could lead some artifact "species" to predominate. "Who would have dreamed that genetic engineering in agriculture would diminish the biodiversity of agriculture? We lost tens of thousands of genome diversity from plants," Ehrenfeld added. As he noted, it's hard to predict the ultimate impact of a given technology.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=9b8372d58855da4e5fb9138b94269309

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Breakfast NY's Mission Control Center merges MLB info with NASA-flair, uses 20 feet of switches and screens

The team at Breakfast NY never leaves us hungry when it merges the digital and physical worlds -- and this time it's created something that hits it out of the park for the start of this year's US baseball season. Here at the Major League Baseball Fan Cave in downtown NYC, the team has just unveiled its space program-inspired Mission Control Center. As creative director and co-founder Andrew Zolty explained, "The idea is try and pull in pretty much everything you can possibly imagine that's going on during the 2013 MLB season, and do it in a way that feels reminiscent of NASA's control room: Mission Control."

The 20-foot-long installation houses two sets of 15 small screens (roughly eight inches each), broken up in the middle (one side for the American League teams and the other for the National League teams) by a large LCD and a consumer-grade webcam. Below the screens you'll notice a plethora of switches with LEDs, info lights and a trio of odometers. Both sides feature three rows of five screens, each pertaining to one of the 30 MLB teams and their stadiums. At the flick of a switch, the screens display real-time connected data like recent Foursquare check-ins, weather, Facebook likes and Instagrams, along with team stats and facts and more for each individual stadium at once.

Gallery: Breakfast NY Mission Control Center at MLB Fan Cave

Gallery: Breakfast NY Mission Control Center (press images)

Those smaller screens, by the way, are actually physically modded Android-tablets -- unfortunately, Breakfast wasn't at liberty to tell us exactly which kind they are. Essentially, they are all running custom apps, with support from MLB.TV to pull real-time, live streams from each stadium in the league. In total, we're told that 13 APIs and seven software languages work in conjunction to make up the Control Center. The setup will also allow players visiting the Cave to have live chats with roughly 10 fans at a time who participate from MLB's site (sort of like Google+) -- of course, the chats allow an essentially unlimited number of spectators. Curious for more of the nitty gritty? Join us past the break.

Filed under: Misc, Alt

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Source: Breakfast NY

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/breakfast-ny-mission-control-center-mlb-fan-cave/

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Pa. groundhog's handler taking blame for forecast

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? An Ohio prosecutor who light-heartedly filed a criminal indictment against the famous Pennsylvania groundhog who fraudulently "predicted" an early spring said he may consider a pardon now that the animal's handler is taking the blame.

Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, told The Associated Press on Monday that the animal rightly predicted six more weeks of winter last month, but he mistakenly announced an early spring because he failed to correctly interpret Phil's "groundhog-ese."

"I'm the guy that did it; I'll be the fall guy. It's not Phil's fault," Deeley said.

Butler County, Ohio, prosecutor Mike Gmoser told the AP that he's reconsidering the charges in light of the new evidence and may issue a full pardon.

"Frankly, he is a cute little rascal, a cute little thing," Gmoser said. "And if somebody is willing to step up to the plate and take the rap, I'm willing to listen."

The Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, a borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, attracts worldwide attention each year. But the attention stretched well beyond Feb. 2 when Gmoser last week issued an indictment as winter-like weather continued across much of the nation even as spring began.

"Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design cause the people to believe that spring would come early," Gmoser's indictment said. The penalty? Death, Smoser said, tongue firmly in cheek.

Deeley said this is the second year in a row he's misinterpreted Phil's forecast. "Remember, last year at this time it was 80 degrees and Phil had predicted six more weeks of winter," Deeley said.

Under normal circumstances, Deeley's interpretation of the forecast is infallible, as long as he clings to the gnarly, magical "Arcadian" cane while the rodent whispers the forecast into his ear. Deeley still doesn't know what went wrong, but he said the borough is nonetheless pleased to still be in the news more than six weeks later ? although there's more snow on the ground, and local schools were closed Monday.

"We couldn't have generated this much publicity with a $10,000 ad campaign," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pa-groundhogs-handler-taking-blame-forecast-135937251.html

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Could cousin sway high court? (CNN)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Kerry arrives in Iraq on unannounced visit

BAGHDAD (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Iraq on an unannounced visit to urge Iraqi leaders to overcome sectarian differences that still threaten the country's stability following the 10-year anniversary of the American-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Kerry flew into Baghdad on Saturday from Amman after accompanying President Barack Obama to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. Officials traveling with him said he would press Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior officials on democratic reforms and urge them to stop overflights of Iranian aircraft carrying military personnel and equipment to support the Syrian government as it battles rebels.

The overflights have been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq and Kerry will tell the Iraqis that letting them continue will threaten Iraq's stability.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-arrives-iraq-unannounced-visit-074635601--politics.html

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The Supremes Tackle Gay Marriage

By MICHAEL FALCONE ( @michaelpfalcone )

NOTABLES

ON THE DOCKET: Two potentially transformative cases about gay marriage will be argued at the Supreme Court this week. Justices have set aside two days to hear arguments and will release audio arguments the same day, reports ABC's Ariane De Vogue. Both cases will be decided by the end of June. First up is a challenge to California's Proposition 8, the controversial ballot initiative that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Although the court could rule more narrowly, this case asks the big question of whether there is a fundamental right to gay marriage. The Supreme Court will also hear a challenge to a federal law, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that defines marriage as between one man and a woman. The law denies federal benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in their states. Unlike the Prop 8 case, the DOMA challenge does not address whether there is a fundamental right under the Constitution to gay marriage. http://abcn.ws/15Kp51S

THE PROP. 8 HURDLE: The original sponsors of Prop 8 - a group called Protectmarriage.com - are defending the law because California officials refused to do so. The Supreme Court will explore whether the proponents have the legal right to be in court. If the court finds that the original sponsors have no "standing," then the case comes to a screeching halt, and the court will not reach the merits of the case. Opponents of Prop 8 argue that "standing" requires an injury and proponents of Prop 8 cannot show they will be harmed if same-sex couples marry. "Proponents have never contended - and do not contend before this Court - that they would personally suffer any injury if gay men and lesbians were permitted to marry in California," write lawyers Theodore B. Olson and David Boies on behalf of gay couples who are challenging Prop 8. More details on the merits of the Prop. 8 case http://abcn.ws/15Kp51S and DOMA http://abcn.ws/YP8mXb from ABC's Ariane De Vogue.

KARL ROVE: 'I COULD' IMAGINE A GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SUPPORTING GAY MARRIAGE. Former George W. Bush deputy chief of staff Karl Rove told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Sunday on "This Week" that he can imagine a future Republican presidential candidate supporting gay marriage. When asked, "Can you imagine the next presidential campaign, a Republican candidate saying flat out I am for gay marriage?" Rove responded "I could." The vast majority of Republicans in Congress do not support same-sex marriage. Portman is the only sitting Republican senator to support same-sex marriage. http://abcn.ws/11AD5yF

THE BACKDROP: An ABC News-Washington Post poll released last week found that 58 percent of Americans support legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian couples, and in the past month, two heavy hitters in politics - former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio - announced their support of same-sex marriage.

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC's RICK KLEIN: There's no use trying to take the real world out of the high court this time. Added to the fact that the nine justices themselves have quintessentially modern American families - divorces, single life, adopted kids - is the Los Angeles Times' report that Chief Justice John Roberts' lesbian cousin will be attending this week's hearings on gay marriage cases. Then there's the real political world, with Karl Rove saying on ABC's "This Week" yesterday that he can see a Republican candidate for president endorse gay marriage in time for 2016. The public has been dragging political leaders along on the issue for years now; recall it was less than a year ago that President Obama himself still opposed gay marriage. The Supreme Court is more insulated from societal shifts, but it's not immune from them, either. More of my analysis on the gay marriage issue: http://abcn.ws/16Slm5K

ABC's ARIANE DE VOGUE: This week gay rights advocates will head to the Supreme Court to hear Theodore Olson, a lawyer opposing Prop 8, argue for marriage equality at the Supreme Court. Olson's argument is as broad as can be, asking the court to recognize a right to gay marriage. But many gay rights advocates, who have worked behind the scenes for years, initially disagreed with Olson's strategy to take a challenge to a state ban (Prop 8, California) on gay marriage to the Supreme Court. They thought he was asking for too much too soon. Last week Linda Greenhouse, who won a Pulitzer prize for her New York Times coverage of the Court, said Olson was right, that his lawsuit has in fact had the effect of "speeding and enhancing public understanding" and support for marriage equality. She says this is due in part to the fact that the lower court held a trial on the issue and gave people the time to think through the issues. When asked about the early schism between gay rights advocates on a conference call last week, Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign said the disagreement "is really water under the bridge." http://abcn.ws/11CbQUr

ABC's DEVIN DWYER: The coffin has been opened; autopsy performed. Now it's time for the Republican Party to start aggressively amassing new Twitter followers and Facebook friends like there's no tomorrow. So say two millennial conservatives and high-tech entrepreneurs leading the charge on the GOP makeover after Mitt Romney's failed 2012 campaign. "Whether it's Facebook, whether it's Twitter, whether it's something that isn't even popular yet, sort of augmented reality glasses - doesn't really matter what the tool is, it has to go toward the strategy of educating people and then getting them to the polls," Bret Jacobson, 33, a co-founder of the digital strategy group Red Edge, a told ABC News/Yahoo! News "Power Players" series. "I think it's really going to come down to the next presidential candidate," he added. "Probably the fastest way to reinventing a party is through sort of an insurgent candidate." Who is that candidate? Get their take: http://yhoo.it/ZkzDEk

ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: Over the weekend I spoke to Tomas Young and his wife Claudia Cuellar. After being paralyzed by a sniper's bullet in Iraq nine years ago Young has decided to end his life in the next few weeks. They are both astonishingly open and at peace with the process, only hoping to change attitudes about death and dying as well as continue to shine a light on their anti-Iraq war activism. A 33-year-old who has served his country bravely is not the type of person who should be out of options, but after nine years of struggling, he is simply sick of suffering. It was a heartbreaking interview, Young's voice is quite blurred and his wife jumps in when needed, but it is an incredibly important story about the aftermath of war.

WHAT WE'RE READING

"CHIEF JUSTICE'S LESBIAN COUSIN WILL ATTEND PROP. 8 HEARING," by the Los Angeles Times' Maura Dolan. Jean Podrasky, 48, a lesbian who wants to marry her partner, will be at Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8 in seating reserved for family members and guests of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. 'I am so excited,' said Podrasky, an accountant and the first cousin of the chief justice on his mother's side. 'I feel quite honored and overwhelmed.' Roberts is a conservative appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005. Podrasky, who is more liberal, said she rooted for his nomination to be approved by the U.S. Senate. 'He is family,' she said. Podrasky lives in San Francisco and usually sees Roberts only on family occasions. His mother is her godmother, whom she adores. She said Roberts knows she is gay and introduced her along with other relatives during his Senate confirmation hearing. She hopes he will meet her partner of four years, Grace Fasano, during their Washington visit. The couple flew to Washington on Sunday. 'He is a smart man,' she said. 'He is a good man. I believe he sees where the tide is going. I do trust him. I absolutely trust that he will go in a good direction.'" http://lat.ms/YyPvU8

"THIS WEEK" WEB EXTRAS:

-JIM MESSINA REFLECTS ON 'WHITE KNUCKLE' MOMENTS OF 2012 OBAMA CAMPAIGN. Jim Messina, President Obama's 2012 campaign manager, sat down with ABC News' MICHAEL FALCONE and answered viewer questions from Facebook in a Web exclusive after his appearance on the "This Week" roundtable yesterday. Messina looked back at the "white knuckle" moments of the 2012 campaign, reports ABC's Kaye Foley. "I think [it was] after the August debt-limit crisis, and August 2011 where our numbers were, you know, historically low, and then of course after the first debate when everyone was very, very concerned," he said. "Even then I believed we would win, both times, but there were definitely some white knuckle moments." Even as he reflects on the past year, it's clear he's also keeping an eye on the next presidential campaign and the potential Republican contenders. Watch the full Q&A with Messina: http://abcn.ws/16RJvJC

ABC NEWS: Looking ahead to 2016, do you think Republicans have a deeper bench to work with in terms of potential presidential candidates than the Democrats?

MESSINA: "I don't. I think their bench is problematic. If you look at the current standing of the Republican Party nationally, it's the lowest it's been in 30 years, in part because of positions they've taken on the issues. If you look at the 2012 primaries, Governor Romney was forced to go so far right in the primaries because of who the base of the Republican Party is that by the time he got to the general election, he couldn't get to the center. He took positions on immigration reform, on social issues like contraception that were incredibly damaging to him. And I think until the Republican Party deals with its internal fights, their nominees are going to have real problems."

-KARL ROVE SUGGESTS STEPHEN COLBERT MAY NEED 'ANGER MANAGEMENT. Karl Rove, Fox News contributor and former deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, says of comedian-satirist Stephen Colbert's interactions with Rove's bespectacled canned-ham likeness, "Ham Rove,": "He's an entertainer so he gets to be funny and exaggerate things and so forth. Though I have to admit, when he took out the knife and started stabbing it, I think he might need a little bit of professional counseling on his anger management issues."Rove joked "I don't know whether that was working out his inner feelings, or encouraging maybe someone to maybe mimic him or just sort of being funny. But there was a little bit of anxiety in his stabs there." Before joining the "This Week" roundtable, Rove sat down with ABC News' BENJAMIN BELL, answering a variety of viewer questions from Facebook, including what he thinks of George W. Bush's paintings, his career and his thoughts on the Iraq War 10 years later. Watch the full Q&A with Rove: http://abcn.ws/16RR0Al

ABC: What do you think of President Bush's paintings?

ROVE: "I have one. I have one of the original, first forty-threes. He painted my wife and our dogs. And he's pretty good. Particularly, I called him when Barney died. And he'd painted a picture of Barney, which I thought was really, you know, clearly from the heart."

MONDAY FOLLOW: The team behind the "This Week" web extras: Ben Bell ( @BenjaminBell) and Kaye Foley ( @KayeFoley)

BUZZ

DISSECTING OBAMA'S 'EVOLUTION' ON GAY MARRIAGE: In an interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts in May, President Obama stated his personal support for same-sex marriage, becoming the first president to back marriage publicly for gay and lesbian couples. "For me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama told Roberts in May of 2012. While voicing his support at the time, the president said that he had no intention to "nationalize" the issue and hoped it would be left up to the states. In an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos earlier this month, the president said he hopes the Supreme Court will grant same-sex couples the right to marry. When asked whether he could think of a compelling reason for states to bar same-sex marriage, he said "I can't, personally. I cannot." More from ABC's Arlette Saenz: http://abcn.ws/10cd43u

BLOOMBERG, NRA BRACE FOR SENATE SHOWDOWN ON GUNS. With the U.S. Senate slated to consider comprehensive gun legislation next month, two powerful voices on different sides of the gun debate - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre - are bracing for the upcoming legislative showdown on guns, notes ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ. Bloomberg's gun group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, announced this weekend that it will pour $12 million into advertising in 13 key states to convince potentially persuadable Democratic and Republican senators to vote in favor of gun legislation, specifically focusing on the controversial universal background checks; a measure that an ABC News-Washington Post poll found is supported by 91 percent of the public. "We're trying to do everything we can to impress upon the senators that this is what the survivors want, this is what the public wants," Bloomberg said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "If 90 percent of the public want something, and their representatives vote against that, common sense says, they are going to have a price to pay for that." http://abcn.ws/ZhlszU

WOUNDED IRAQ VET PREPARES TO DIE. Tomas Young is "ready to go" as he puts it. After nine years of suffering and with his body quickly deteriorating he has decided to end his struggle. ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE reports that Young, 33, was paralyzed from the chest down by a sniper's bullet in a battle in Sadr City, Iraq on April 4, 2004, less than a week after he got to the country. He had joined the Army just two days after September 11, 2001 and assumed he would be sent to Afghanistan. Now nine years after that battle he is choosing to end his suffering. He is in hospice care and getting ready to die. "I just decided that I was tired of seeing my body deteriorate and I want to go before it's too late," Young said in phone interview with ABC News from his home in Kansas City, Missouri. "I've been doing this for the past nine years now?and I finally felt helpless every day and a burden to the people who take care of me and that's why I want to go." Young and his wife Claudia Cuellar are receiving guests for a few more weeks. During that time, Young will say goodbye to friends and family and then will stop receiving medications, nourishment and water. They don't know how long it could be after that time he will die, but they believe it will be one to three weeks, but it could be as long as six weeks. Young and Cuellar have decided to go public with their story. First, in an article in the Kansas City Star because they want to change the perception on death and dying in this country as well as continue to shine a light on the anti-Iraq war activism Young has been focused on since becoming paralyzed. http://abcn.ws/10ctZmt

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: ASHLEY JUDD HINTS AT SENATE RUN. Ashley Judd made a rare reference to her possible political aspirations today, saying her mother, country star Naomi Judd, can't wait to turn her garage into campaign headquarters. According to Cincinnati station WXIX-Fox 19, Judd spoke about her future while giving the keynote address at the American Counseling Association's 2013 conference at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, which borders Kentucky. Judd also tweeted about her speech, saying, "Heartfelt thanks to American Counseling Assoc for having me as your Keynote Speaker today. Thank you for your dedication to hope & healing." According to the station, Judd referred to her potential campaign against Mitch McConnell and what is likely to be a large budget of attack ads, saying when she started counseling she didn't like to hear criticism, which she said was ironic because she's "about to get $40 million worth of it." http://abcn.ws/14i1xp1

IN THE NOTE'S INBOX

" JOBS PACKAGE A GOOD DEAL FOR ALL NEW MEXICANS," an Op-Ed by The Albuquerque Journal by GOP New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. "At the beginning of the session, I called on the Legislature to pass reforms making New Mexico more competitive with neighboring states. The mandatory cuts in Washington, D.C., will disproportionately hurt our state and while we will always fight to protect our labs and bases, we must simultaneously work to diversify our economy by building a stronger private sector. I'm pleased that by passing the New Mexico Jobs Package, we reached a bipartisan compromise that will help our economy grow by leveling the playing field with surrounding states. The New Mexico Jobs Package cuts the business tax rate from 7.6 percent to 5.9 percent. The 7.6 percent rate is the highest in the region and at 5.9 percent, New Mexico will be more in line with neighboring states. This will help attract new job-creating businesses to our state and help existing businesses grow." http://bit.ly/14iSDY7

WHO'S TWEETING?

@BenSherwoodABC: Auspicious day for @ABC. Roone Arledge: NYT crossword clue. @RobinRoberts: taxi Jeopardy clue.

@aterkel: Will Portman talks about his dad's evolution on marriage equality http://huff.to/16ThiCe via @samsteinhp

@kakukowski: Interesting read from WaPo and the RNC report being start of new beginning http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/can-republicans-learn-from-the-democrats/2013/03/22/ed980f40-9312-11e2-ba5b-550c7abf6384_print.html ?

@CrowleyTIME: Feels like we're seeing more and more leaked stories about US/CIA assistance to Syrian rebels-without much real escalation of involvement.

@ThePlumLineGS: Is Senator Inhofe going to build an igloo outside the Capitol again? RT @noltenc Total white out here. Is Al Gore coming to speak?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/note-supremes-tackle-gay-marriage-131204110--abc-news-politics.html

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