The use of plasmonic black metals could someday provide a pathway to more efficient photovoltaics (PV) -- the use of solar panels containing photovoltaic solar cells -- to improve solar energy harvesting, according to researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
The LLNL Materials Engineering Division (MED) research team has made breakthroughs experimenting with black metals. These nanostructured metals are designed to have low reflectivity and high absorption of visible and infrared light. The MED research team recently published their black metals research results in a cover-page article in the May issue of Applied Physics Letters titled "Plasmonic Black Metals in Resonant Nanocavities."
Authored by MED physicist and research team member Mihail Bora, the article details the work of the nanophotonics and plasmonics research team led by LLNL engineer Tiziana Bond.
It describes the team's concept of black metals, which are not classic metals but can be thought of as an extension of the black silicon concept. When silicon is treated in a certain way, such as being roughened at the nanoscale level, it traps light by multiple reflections, increasing its solar absorption. This gives the silicon a black surface that's able to better trap the full sun's wavelength spectrum.
Similarly, black metals are produced by some sort of random nanostructuring -- either in gold or silver -- without guaranteeing a full, reliable and repeatable full solar absorption.
However, Bond's team developed a method to improve and control the absorption efficiency and basically turn the metals as black as they want, allowing them to increase, on demand, the absorption of a higher quantity of solar wavelengths. Her team built nanopillar structures that are trapping and absorbing all the relevant wavelengths of the entire solar spectrum.
"Our article was picked for the cover story of Applied Physics Letters because it represents cutting-edge work in the area of plasmonics, the broadband operation obtained with a clear design and its implication for the photovoltaic yield," Bond said.
This new LLNL technology could one day be used in the energy harvesting industry such as PV. By incorporating metallic nanostructures with strong coupling of incident light, broad spectral and angular coverage, the LLNL team is providing a path for more efficient photovoltaics and thermovoltaics (a form of energy collection) by means of plasmon-exciton conversion, according to Bond and Bora.
FILE- In this Nov. 28, 2012, file photo, Powerball numbers are chosen in the $579.9-million game drawing at the Florida Lottery in Tallahassee, Fla. No one hit the Powerball jackpot on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013, so the $400-million prize will roll over for the next drawing on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)
FILE- In this Nov. 28, 2012, file photo, Powerball numbers are chosen in the $579.9-million game drawing at the Florida Lottery in Tallahassee, Fla. No one hit the Powerball jackpot on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013, so the $400-million prize will roll over for the next drawing on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Phil Sears, File)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? No one hit the Powerball jackpot this weekend, so the money will roll over and create a roughly $400 million prize for Wednesday's drawing.
The midweek jackpot remains below the record $590.5 million jackpot won in May by an 84-year-old Florida woman. But as it stands, it would be the third-largest Powerball jackpot ever and the fourth-largest lottery prize on record.
Saturday's winning numbers were 21, 24, 36, 42 and 45; the Powerball was 15.
The changes Powerball organizers made to the game last year are coming to roost in the billowing jackpots, with Wednesday's pushing into record territory less than three months after Gloria C. Mackenzie of Zephyrhills, Fla., claimed the biggest Powerball prize ever.
Powerball tickets doubled in price to $2 in January 2012 as part of a plan to help jackpots grow bigger, faster. And when the jackpots reach astronomical levels, ticket sales take off, with jackpots following close behind.
If Wednesday's jackpot doesn't top $400 million, a single winner choosing the cash option would collect $230.3 million before taxes.
No matter how many people play the game, the odds of matching all six numbers remains 1 in 175.2 million.
Half of the $2 cost of a Powerball ticket goes toward the prizes, the rest to the state lottery organization.
Powerball is played in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Each state that participates in the game decides how to use the money. Some states earmark the money for a specific purpose, such as education, while others use it in their general funds.
Wistar scientists decipher structure of NatA, an enzyme complex that modifies most human proteinsPublic release date: 4-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Greg Lester glester@wistar.org 215-898-3934 The Wistar Institute
Vital enzyme complex found elevated in many cancers
A team of researchers from Philadelphia and Norway has determined the structure of an enzyme complex that modifies one end of most human proteins and is made at elevated levels in numerous forms of cancer. A study in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, led by researchers at The Wistar Institute, depicts the structure and the means of action of a protein complex called NatA. Their findings, they believe, will allow them to create an inhibitora potential drugthat could knock out NatA in order to curb the growth of cancer cells.
"NatA appears essential for the growth of cells and their ability to divide, and we can see elevated production of this enzyme in many forms of cancer" said Ronen Marmorstein, Ph.D., senior author, Hilary Koprowski, M.D. Professor, and leader of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center's Gene Expression and Regulation program. "Obviously, this is a particularly appealing drug target and we are currently leveraging our recent understanding of how the protein works to develop small molecules that will bind to and inactivate NatA."
NatA is a member of a family of N-terminal acetyltransferase (NAT) enzymes (or enzyme complexes) that modify proteins in order to control their behaviorfor example by turning proteins on, telling proteins where to move, and tagging proteins or the cell for destruction.
According to Marmorstein, NatA works with an amazing specificity for a particular sequence of amino acidsthe individual building blocks of proteinsand unraveling the roots of that specificity has proven an alluring puzzle for scientists.
The Marmorstein laboratory has proven expertise in the study of acetylation enzymes, proteins that modify other molecules in the cell with an acetyl group "tag." In the cellular world, structure dictates function, and acetylation is a universal process for controlling protein behavior and gene expression in living organisms.
"Modifying protein structures is one way that our cells control how proteins function," Marmorstein explained, "and enzymes in the NAT family modify nearly 85 percent of human proteins, and 50 percent of these are modified by NatA."
According to Marmorstein, NatA operates in a complex of two proteins, an enzymatic subunit and an auxiliary partner. When they developed the structure of NatAby bombarding a crystallized sample of the enzyme with powerful X-raysthey found how the auxiliary partner protein is crucial for turning the enzymatic subunit on.
Binding to an auxiliary protein causes a structural change in the enzymatic subunit that properly configures the active site of the proteinthe region of the protein where the chemical reaction occursessentially acting as a switch that activates the enzyme.
"When it binds to its auxiliary protein, the enzymatic subunit of NatA actually changes shape, reconfiguring the structure to allow it to properly grab its target protein N-terminal sequence for acetylation," Marmorstein said.
Importantly, others have found that NatA function is required for the proliferation of cancer cells. Marmorstein says, understanding the structure of NatA has allowed his team to better understand how to inactivate the protein in cancer cells. The structure has yielded targets for small molecules that will act as inhibitors, essentially stopping the protein by gumming up its structure.
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The lead author of this study is Glen Liszczak, Ph.D., a graduate student working at the Wistar Institute from the University of Pennsylvania Department of Chemistry. Other co-authors of this study include, Jacob M. Goldberg, and E. James Petersson, Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Chemistry; and Hrvard Foyn, Ph.D., and Thomas Arnesen, Ph.D., from the University of Bergen, Norway.
Funding for this project was through the National Institutes of Health grants GM060293 and GM071339. The Arnesen laboratory's efforts were supported by the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Cancer Society.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Wistar scientists decipher structure of NatA, an enzyme complex that modifies most human proteinsPublic release date: 4-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Greg Lester glester@wistar.org 215-898-3934 The Wistar Institute
Vital enzyme complex found elevated in many cancers
A team of researchers from Philadelphia and Norway has determined the structure of an enzyme complex that modifies one end of most human proteins and is made at elevated levels in numerous forms of cancer. A study in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, led by researchers at The Wistar Institute, depicts the structure and the means of action of a protein complex called NatA. Their findings, they believe, will allow them to create an inhibitora potential drugthat could knock out NatA in order to curb the growth of cancer cells.
"NatA appears essential for the growth of cells and their ability to divide, and we can see elevated production of this enzyme in many forms of cancer" said Ronen Marmorstein, Ph.D., senior author, Hilary Koprowski, M.D. Professor, and leader of The Wistar Institute Cancer Center's Gene Expression and Regulation program. "Obviously, this is a particularly appealing drug target and we are currently leveraging our recent understanding of how the protein works to develop small molecules that will bind to and inactivate NatA."
NatA is a member of a family of N-terminal acetyltransferase (NAT) enzymes (or enzyme complexes) that modify proteins in order to control their behaviorfor example by turning proteins on, telling proteins where to move, and tagging proteins or the cell for destruction.
According to Marmorstein, NatA works with an amazing specificity for a particular sequence of amino acidsthe individual building blocks of proteinsand unraveling the roots of that specificity has proven an alluring puzzle for scientists.
The Marmorstein laboratory has proven expertise in the study of acetylation enzymes, proteins that modify other molecules in the cell with an acetyl group "tag." In the cellular world, structure dictates function, and acetylation is a universal process for controlling protein behavior and gene expression in living organisms.
"Modifying protein structures is one way that our cells control how proteins function," Marmorstein explained, "and enzymes in the NAT family modify nearly 85 percent of human proteins, and 50 percent of these are modified by NatA."
According to Marmorstein, NatA operates in a complex of two proteins, an enzymatic subunit and an auxiliary partner. When they developed the structure of NatAby bombarding a crystallized sample of the enzyme with powerful X-raysthey found how the auxiliary partner protein is crucial for turning the enzymatic subunit on.
Binding to an auxiliary protein causes a structural change in the enzymatic subunit that properly configures the active site of the proteinthe region of the protein where the chemical reaction occursessentially acting as a switch that activates the enzyme.
"When it binds to its auxiliary protein, the enzymatic subunit of NatA actually changes shape, reconfiguring the structure to allow it to properly grab its target protein N-terminal sequence for acetylation," Marmorstein said.
Importantly, others have found that NatA function is required for the proliferation of cancer cells. Marmorstein says, understanding the structure of NatA has allowed his team to better understand how to inactivate the protein in cancer cells. The structure has yielded targets for small molecules that will act as inhibitors, essentially stopping the protein by gumming up its structure.
###
The lead author of this study is Glen Liszczak, Ph.D., a graduate student working at the Wistar Institute from the University of Pennsylvania Department of Chemistry. Other co-authors of this study include, Jacob M. Goldberg, and E. James Petersson, Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Chemistry; and Hrvard Foyn, Ph.D., and Thomas Arnesen, Ph.D., from the University of Bergen, Norway.
Funding for this project was through the National Institutes of Health grants GM060293 and GM071339. The Arnesen laboratory's efforts were supported by the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Cancer Society.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama kicked off his birthday weekend Saturday with a round of golf with friends and a getaway to Camp David.
Obama, who turns 52 on Sunday, left the White House just after 8 a.m. EDT ? that's unusually early for the half-hour motorcade ride to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland ? to squeeze in some golf before the celebration shifted to the presidential retreat nestled in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.
Before leaving, officials said Obama's counterterrorism adviser updated him on a potential al-Qaida threat that led the State Department on Friday to issue a global travel warning to Americans and order the weekend closure of 21 embassies and consulates across the Muslim world.
The White House said the president's three golfing foursomes included some of his friends from Hawaii, where he grew up, and Chicago, where he lived before becoming president, along with current and former aides.
Among them were childhood friends Bobby Titcomb and Mike Ramos, and Chicago pals Marty Nesbitt and Eric Whitaker. White House aides Marvin Nicholson and Sam Kass, an assistant chef, rounded out the group, along with Reggie Love, who for years had been Obama's personal assistant, or "body man," and basketball buddy until he left the White House in late 2011 to work on getting an MBA.
Due to the limited number of seats, only the winners at golf ? Love, Kass and two other players ? got to join Obama on the presidential helicopter. The losers went the long way, by car.
First lady Michelle Obama traveled to Camp David separately.
The White House said little about how Obama would celebrate on Saturday night and Sunday, but the birthday wishes started rolling in early.
House Democrats presented Obama with a birthday cake when he went up to the Capitol this week, and American Legion youth members sang "Happy Birthday" to him during a White House visit late last month.
For last year's birthday, which fell during his heated campaign for re-election, Obama also celebrated with a round of golf before heading to Camp David. But he later held several birthday-themed campaign fundraisers in Chicago, including one at his family's South Side home.
Obama is scheduled to return to the White House on Sunday.
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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
SAN MARCOS, CA, August 03, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Frankel Photography, a leading wedding, Bar Mitzvah, pet and family portrait photography studio in San Marcos, California, is having a huge summer sale on all wedding and Bar Mitzvah packages.
Through September 15, all Frankel Photography customers will receive a 10% discount on the package of their choice for Bar Mitzvah and wedding photo packages from this leading San Diego wedding photographer.
Owner and lead photographer at Frankel Photography, Albert Frankel has been in the photography business for more than three decades and knows that providing top quality customer service and professionalism go hand-in-hand when photographing a family's special occasion.
He said his studio is happy to offer discounted packages to two of the biggest special events possible. The summer sale on wedding and Bar Mitzvah packages at Frankel Photography will continue until September 15, 2013.
"We are happy to offer this discount on our top quality photography services for the summer months," said Frankel. "We know that these events can be very costly for a family so we'd like to make it a little easier for them use our professional photography services for their wedding or Bar Mitzvah."
Frankel also has enough experience in the photography business to know that using the most advanced equipment and lighting is the only way to deliver the very best photographic images to his clients. Recently, Frankel Photography starting using state of the art LED lighting in addition to traditional lighting methods when working on a photo shoot. "LED lighting give us much greater ability to create images that are guaranteed to amaze," said Frankel.
As lead photographer at Frankel Photography, Al Frankel brings an extensive portfolio of knowledge and experience to every event he covers. Frankel's uncanny camera sense and ability to capture the moment is evidenced in the warmth and style of his work. Heather Frankel is also a big part of the team, specializing in digital image processing and album design, her skills are essential in turning photographs into treasured memories.
About Frankel Photography: Frankel Photography, located in San Marcos, California, just outside San Diego, offers more than 27 years of experience as professional photographers specializing in wedding photography, Bar and Bat Mitzvah photography. The company offers expert special event photography, as well as pet photography and portrait photography.
For more information about Frankel Photography visit their website or call 760-402-2531.
--- Press release service and press release distribution provided by http://www.24-7pressrelease.com
PARIS (AP) ? French special police forces backed by an airplane and armored vehicles seized a Kazakh dissident businessman accused of embezzling billions of dollars from the country's BTA Bank, a French prosecutor said Thursday.
The Wednesday arrest of Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive former Kazakh energy minister and head of the pre-nationalized BTA Bank, came after the deportation of his wife and young daughter from Italy to Kazakhstan caused a political crisis in Rome last month.
He is to go before a French judge Thursday on allegations of fraud and organized crime, according to the chief prosecutor.
Ablyazov, 50, had dropped out of sight just before he was sentenced in Britain in February 2012 for contempt of court during a financial fraud trial. After leaving his government post, Ablyazov emerged as a prominent opponent of Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled the energy-rich Central Asian nation since before the Soviet collapse.
Solange Legras, chief prosecutor at an appeals court in the southeastern town of Aix-en-Provence, told The Associated Press that special police forces, backed by an airplane and armored vehicles, swept into a rental home in the town of Mouans Sartoux on Wednesday to detain Ablyazov.
The police used "powerful means" because Ablyazov was known to have a "private militia" at his disposal, said Legras, whose office also focuses on international cases. No shots were fired or any physical damage caused during the operation.
Ablyazov, who has been sought since 2009 through an Interpol request, was detained on allegations of "large-scale fraud in an organized group" and was appearing in court, Legras said by phone, shortly after meeting with Ablyazov to explain the possible extradition process.
Shortly after setting up a pro-reform party in 2001, Ablyazov was sentenced to six years in prison for abuse of public office. He was pardoned by Nazarbayev and released in 2003, vowing to stay out of politics ? a promise he broke by funneling money to the opposition.
Kazakhstan's prosecutors have described Ablyazov as the head of an extremist, criminal conspiracy bent on "seizing power by inciting civil strife and hatred." The prosecutor in Astana, the Kazakh capital, said Interpol had informed the government of Ablyazov's arrest, which was carried out at the request of Ukraine.
Ablyazov in sought by Russia in connection with embezzlement charges that involved BTA bank and a Russian company. Ukraine is seeking him on charges stemming from alleged embezzlement of funds from a local branch of the BTA bank.
In a statement on his Facebook page, Madiyar Ablyazov, the former banker's son, said he feared what would happen if his father were deported to Kazakhstan.
"We beg the French authorities not to grant Kazakhstan our father. He is a man of honor, who has been fighting all his life, and sacrificed so much, for freedom and democracy in Kazakhstan," the younger Ablyazov wrote. "We are afraid for his life."
Efforts to contact him directly were not immediately successful.
Legras, the Aix-en-Provence prosecutor, said French judicial authorities know so far of three extradition requests for Ablyazov: from Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine ? countries where BTA has operations, which were allegedly damaged by fraud in the case. Because France has no extradition agreement with Kazakhstan, Legras said she is focusing on the extradition request from Ukraine for now.
Under the extradition process, the requesting country has 40 days to send its legal dossier to French authorities. Once that is received, French prosecutors will have five days to present Ablyazov to investigating magistrates. "In my opinion, this isn't going to happen before the autumn," she said.
Ablyazov is wanted by Kazakhstan authorities on charges of siphoning off at least $5 billion from BTA Bank, based in the central Asian country's business capital, Almaty. A British court last year upheld a 22-month prison sentence imposed on Ablyazov for contempt of court for breaching an asset-freezing order.
Ablyazov denies wrongdoing and says the allegations are politically motivated.
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Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.
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Follow Lori Hinnant at https://twitter.com/lhinnant and Jamey Keaten at https://twitter.com/jameykeaten
Texas Democrats have been down so long, they?ve learned a few things about how to deal with the GOP?s superior numbers. One way is to play smarter. That?s what?s happened in the current, never-ending series of special legislative sessions. Republicans might be in the majority, but Democrats have made GOP Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst look at times like pitiful giants, struggling to accomplish what they want. Perry looks bad because he?s been forced into a series of extra sessions suggesting he?s a lame duck with waning influence even in his own party. Dewhurst fumbled the abortion bill and a measure to fund highways. He?ll go into next year?s re-election race with opponents calling him an incompetent, unsteady leader. There?s a ideological civil war brewing in the Texas GOP over how to pay for new road construction. And Democrats have a new hero ? Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth ? who?s energized a party that hasn?t be winning statewide races in 20 years. I wrote about all this in a column today.
Here?s how some guerrilla Democrats have kept the Republican leadership off balance. Democrats lacked the votes to kill the abortion bill in the first special session. So they slowed things down. On June 23, Democrats went to the back microphone in the House and began peppering the presiding officer with parliamentary questions, ultimately forcing a two-hour delay. They challenged the arrangement of the House calendar, the chamber?s daily agenda. Another two-hour delay. They challenged Republican efforts to postpone other bills to get to the abortion legislation. When the sponsor of the abortion bill wouldn?t debate it, fearing it would only delay things, Democrats debated themselves to run down the clock. By the time the House actually voted, after all the speeches and parliamentary delays, it was past 3 a.m. Under the rules, the Senate couldn?t take up the abortion bill for another day ? the last day of the session ? setting up Wendy Davis? 11-hour filibuster that helped doom the bill.
Perry called lawmakers back immediately. This time, Republicans moved swiftly to pass the abortion bill, but now a highway funding bill is in trouble. Perry, Dewhurst and company couldn?t get it passed in a second special session because a nasty rift emerged within the Republican Party over how to pay for new roads. The no-new-taxes crowd held the pro-business wing hostage, killing the bill in the second special session. So Perry has called lawmakers back again. The outcome is anything but certain. Dewhurst could have gotten the highway bill passed earlier, but wanted to teach Davis a lesson by making her filibuster last as long as possible. So he postponed the highway bill, and now it?s not clear whether the Republican leadership gets it at all.
Who needs outside saviors to turn Texas blue when you?ve got guerrilla Democrats?
CLEVELAND (AP) ? Three women held captive in a run-down home for a decade kept diaries documenting the horrific physical and sexual abuse they suffered on a daily basis, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The women's kidnapper, Ariel Castro, lured one of them into his Cleveland home with the promise of a puppy for her son and later locked all of them in a vehicle in his garage for three days when someone visited him, prosecutors said. Castro, a former school bus driver, claimed he didn't have an exit strategy from his complicated double life and finally gave the women a chance to escape by leaving a door unlocked, they said in a court document.
One of the women broke free in May and called for help, frantically telling an emergency dispatcher, "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years, and I'm, I'm here. I'm free now."
Castro has pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including kidnapping, rape, assault and aggravated murder. He's being sentenced Thursday.
Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty said in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday that Castro, who chained his captives by their ankles and fed them only one meal a day, "admits his disgusting and inhuman conduct" but "remains remorseless for his actions." The memorandum says many of the charges in Castro's indictment reflect conduct documented by one of the women in her diary.
In the memorandum, prosecutors describe the horrific conditions the women endured at Castro's hands. The women's diaries, they say, "document abuse and life as a captive."
"The entries speak of forced sexual conduct, of being locked in a dark room, of anticipating the next session of abuse, of the dreams of someday escaping and being reunited with family, of being chained to a wall, of being held like a prisoner of war," the memorandum says.
When Castro was arrested, his attorneys said evidence would show he wasn't a monster. The county prosecutor says the facts he'll present Thursday at Castro's sentencing, at which Castro faces life in prison plus 1,000 years, will prove the lawyers wrong.
"You'll make the same logical judgment when you see the facts," McGinty said last week after Castro pleaded guilty. "You have not seen the evidence yet."
The legal team representing the women's interests declined to comment on whether they would testify or send statements to the court. Castro's defense team had no immediate comment Wednesday.
The women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.
Many horrific details of the women's ordeal had already emerged, with one woman forced to wear a motorcycle helmet while chained in the basement and, after she tried to escape, having a vacuum cord wrapped around her neck.
Castro repeatedly starved and beat one of the victims each time she was pregnant, forcing her to miscarry five times.
He forced that woman on threat of death to safely deliver the child he fathered with another victim on Christmas Day 2006. That day, prosecutors say, Castro raped the woman who helped deliver his daughter.
Prosecutors will ask the judge to prohibit Castro from ever seeing his daughter, now 6.
McGinty says experts also will discuss the Stockholm syndrome to explain how Castro was able to keep the women captive for so long. The syndrome describes situations in which hostages and victims of abduction begin to sympathize with their captors and even defend them. It was named for a 1973 bank hostage situation in Stockholm, Sweden.
Castro so terrified the women that the day they were rescued, two of them were initially afraid to emerge even with five police officers in the house, McGinty said. When they did, they clung to police so tightly the officers couldn't use their flashlights, he said.
"That told me what fear this man put into these women and how much courage it took to survive this ordeal," McGinty said.
He also referred to the "mental and physical bond and barrier" that the first woman who escaped, Amanda Berry, had the courage to break.
Berry, 27, made a surprise onstage appearance at a rap concert last weekend, and a second victim, Gina DeJesus, 23, made a few televised comments as a privacy fence was erected around her house. The third victim, Michelle Knight, 32, appeared with Berry and DeJesus in a video in early July thanking the community for its support.
Bento, the consumer-oriented database offering from Apple subsidiary FileMaker, is being discontinued on September 30. Bento offered users the ability to create databases using existing or custom templates for various types of information, and integrated with OS X's Calendar and Contacts applications. The discontinuation was announced in a statement by FileMaker:
FileMaker, Inc. is increasing its focus on FileMaker Product Line software. Thanks to the ease of creating iPad and iPhone solutions, our customers' use of FileMaker on iOS is growing rapidly. Our increased focus will create an even better experience for these customers.
As part of our sharpened focus, we will stop further development of the Bento consumer products.
For Bento users, this news is certainly disappointing. Many relied on Bento for database management of projects, contacts, clients, and events. And while FileMaker Pro for desktop and the FileMaker Go apps for iPhone and iPad can fill some of the void, they're also more difficult to use for most users, lack certain features like calendar and contacts integration, and, most importantly for some, they are priced much higher than Bento. FileMaker Pro costs $299, while Bento costs $49.
As unfortunate as this is, it also makes sense that FileMaker would turn their focus to their flagship product line. FileMaker Pro hasn't seen an update since April of 2012, while the iOS apps have been idle since September.
If you're a Bento user, are you surprised by this announcement? Let us know in the comments below, and tell us what you plan to do in the wake of this decision.
A blackened patch of fire-scorched earth along a Bekaa Valley highway marks the scene of a recent roadside bomb, Lebanese Sunnis' latest violent outburst toward the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.The ambush near Majdal Anjar, which reportedly killed one suspected Hezbollah member and wounded three others, was the fourth since early June?to target vehicles believed to contain Hezbollah militants?in the Bekaa. Along with a recent rocket strike and car bombing, both against the Shiite-populated southern suburbs of Beirut, the attack illustrates how Hezbollah's intervention in Syria's bloody civil war on the side of the regime has further enraged Sunnis here, who already resent the military and political power wielded by the Shiite group.?Frustration is growing more and more. The Sunni street is weak and we are the oppressed sect,? says Ramzi Dayshoum, an official with Muslims Without Borders, an Islamic charity, speaking in his office in the Bekaa town of Bar Elias. ?We are an enemy of Hezbollah today and this will cause a big explosion in the country.?But while outbreaks of further violence are inevitable, a descent into all-out civil war similar to the conflict roiling Syria or the one that blighted Lebanon between 1975 and 1990 is unlikely. Beyond a few cells of radical militants,?Lebanese Sunnis are unorganized militarily, and stand little chance in a head-on battle against Hezbollah. And the mainstream moderate leadership, represented by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri's?Future Movement, has rejected violence as a solution. RECOMMENDED: Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz. Still, expressions of bitterness and frustration toward Hezbollah are easy to hear in Sunni areas of Lebanon, whether in the coastal cities of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon or the rural towns of the Bekaa Valley.Sunni demotionOnce the dominant Islamic sect in Lebanon, over the past two decades the Sunni community has been gradually?overshadowed by the political and financial empowerment of the Shiites, led by the powerful Hezbollah.Sunnis point to a series of setbacks over the past decade that has left the community weakened and disenfranchised, including the assassination in 2005 of Rafik Hariri, a charismatic billionaire businessman and former Lebanese prime minister who was a figurehead for Lebanese Sunnis. In 2011, a tribunal in The Netherlands indicted four members of Hezbollah on charges of involvement in Hariri's death.In May 2008, Hezbollah and its allies briefly took control of mainly Sunni west Beirut in an armed response to the then Western-backed government's decision to shut down the Shiite group?s private telecommunications network. And in January 2011, Hezbollah and its parliamentary allies forced the collapse of the government headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of Rafik ? an act that Hariri?s supporters denounced as a ?coup.?The latest Sunni gripe is Hezbollah?s military role in Syria. In early June, Hezbollah retook the rebel-held town of Qusayr in the Homs province and today stands poised along with the Syrian army to seize Homs itself, Syria?s third largest city, from the mainly Sunni armed opposition.Many Sunnis complain that Hezbollah has infiltrated the apparatus of the Lebanese state, dominating the government and wielding influence over the Lebanese army, deepening their sense of marginalization and victimization.?All the sensitive positions in government are for the Shiites or those that support them,? says Abu Yussef, a Salafist cleric from the town of Naameh, nine miles south of Beirut."If I have a gun to protect my home, I am considered a terrorist and I go to prison,? the thickly bearded cleric says. ?But if I say that I am 'resistance' [e.g., a Hezbollah-affiliated anti-Israel fighter] they will never put another foot in my house again.?A tradition of nonviolenceUnlike other leading sects in Lebanon, the Sunni community has little tradition of militancy or rebelliousness. As minorities in a predominantly Sunni region, the Maronites, Shiites and Druze historically sought refuge in the rugged mountains of Lebanon and fought their opponents with a ferocity rooted in the knowledge that defeat could spell annihilation.Meanwhile, the Sunnis lived mainly in the coastal cities of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, prospering as merchants under the dominion of their fellow Sunni Ottomans. Sunni leaders in Lebanon generally have been drawn from a clique of powerful city-dwelling families ??traders and landowners who amassed wealth and property under Ottoman rule and formed the inaugural Sunni political class after the Lebanese state was founded in 1920.But the relatively colorless, besuited Lebanese merchants lacked the charisma of other Sunni leaders?in the region?who caught the eye and the imagination of Lebanese Sunnis, such as Gamal Abdel-Nasser of Egypt, who in the 1950s launched a wave of anti-colonial Arab nationalism that shaped the region's politics for two decades. Then there was Yasser Arafat, the former Palestinian leader, and at other times Saddam Hussein of Iraq and even Muammar Qaddafi of Libya.In the early 1990s,?Sunni?Rafik Hariri became prime minister, launching a sweeping reconstruction program to repair the damage of the civil war and dominating the political landscape of that decade. But he rejected the role of being a specifically Sunni leader.?When Rafik Hariri ruled, the Sunnis wanted him to be their leader, but he always said that he was a leader of all Lebanese not just the Sunnis,? says Mohammed Salam, a veteran Lebanese journalist, editor of the Associated News Agency, and a former official in the Future Movement.It is a line to which the Future Movement?s current leadership continues to adhere, arguing a case for peace and secular co-existence."The mainstream [Sunni] leadership is systematically saying that we will?never take the road of violence or weapons no matter what. We will not abandon our strategic project ? state building and the democratic process,? says Hani Hammoud, a senior advisor to Saad Hariri. ?The only way we will win is as Lebanese, not Sunnis. We reject being reduced to the lowest common denominator. We are not just Sunnis, we are Lebanese.?Looking for a heroThe Future Movement insists that it still retains the support of the majority of Sunnis in Lebanon. While the Future Movement would probably fair well at the polls due to the absence of credible nationwide alternatives, its detractors say the Movement is out of step with?the Sunni community's desire for?a leader who will address their grievances and champion their interests. Dayshoum of Muslims Without Borders says that the Future Movement has grown weaker since May 2008, when it was unable to thwart Hezbollah?s take-over of west Beirut.?It is so weak now that most who joined it have either become more Islamist or are staying at home doing nothing,? he says.Furthermore, Saad Hariri has lived outside Lebanon for more than two years (because of death threats, according to his aides), fostering a vacuum that has the potential to be filled by more militant-minded leaders or grant space to radical extremists to pursue their own anti-Hezbollah agenda.The Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades, a?Sunni?Al-Qaeda-linked faction that has a presence in Lebanon, claimed responsibility for the Majdal Anjar roadside bomb ambush two weeks ago and has vowed to the turn the Bekaa Valley into a ?river of blood? unless Hezbollah withdraws its forces from Syria.Sheikh Ahmad Assir, a Salafist cleric living on the edge of Sidon who emerged from obscurity two years ago, caught the imagination of many Sunnis with his bold public criticism of Hezbollah and its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. But he was unable to win over a broad swathe of the Sunni community. His tactics ? sit-ins blocking major roads in Sidon and feuds with the Lebanese army and Hezbollah supporters ? alienated some Sidon residents who resented his disruptive behaviour. Sheikh Assir and his supporters were eventually crushed in a 24-hour battle with Lebanese troops last month and the firebrand cleric has since gone into hiding.Still, the conflict in Syria is spurring on new grassroots Sunni militant leaders that could yet inspire some Lebanese Sunnis to take action against Hezbollah, even if the bulk of the community remains disinclined to directly tackle the powerful Shiite group.?We don?t have a [communal] leader and with this tsunami coming from Syria, a Sunni from Syria could rally the Sunnis here and they will follow him like they once did with [Palestinian leader] Arafat,? says Salam, the veteran Lebanese journalist. ?It?s physics ? nature abhors a vacuum.?
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Public release date: 4-Aug-2013
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