Rear seat design: A priority for children's safety in cars

Apr. 29, 2013 ? A research report released today from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) provides specific recommendations for optimizing the rear seat of passenger vehicles to better protect its most common occupants -- children and adolescents. By bringing technologies already protecting front seat passengers to the rear seat and modifying the geometry of the rear seat to better fit this age group, the US could achieve important reductions in serious injury and death. Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for children older than 4 years and resulted in 952 fatalities in 2010 for children age 15 and younger.

"Our review of the current science and data regarding rear seat occupant safety found clear evidence that use of a child restraint system (CRS) is protective for younger children. However, older children who have outgrown child safety seats and booster seats are at greater risk of injury," says Kristy Arbogast, PhD, lead author of the report and director of engineering at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at CHOP. "Many technologies that protect front seat passengers, such as load limiters and pretensioners, are not commonly found in the rear seat even though sled tests and computer modeling suggest that these seat belt features have the potential to reduce the risk of serious head and chest injury for rear seated occupants."

In addition to front seat restraints, CHOP researchers suggest that cues can be taken from booster seat design to determine how to keep kids who have outgrown boosters properly positioned in vehicle seat belts so the restraint can perform properly. They propose that adjustments to the geometry of the rear seat -- including shorter seat cushions, lower seat belt anchorages and contoured seats -- could increase comfort, keep the shoulder belt in position and, in side impact crashes, reduce lateral movement.

"For children under age 13, the rear seat is still the safer seating position as compared to the front seat of passenger vehicles," says Dr. Arbogast. "But we can do a better job at protecting children who have outgrown add-on restraints."

The report authors recommend the development of regulatory procedures or vehicle performance assessment programs for consumers that evaluate protection of rear seat occupants. Common vehicle rating systems do not evaluate the safety of rear seat occupants in frontal crashes. In addition to engineering solutions, the report also recommends policies and programs to increase rear seat restraint use, which remains lower than front seat restraint use and is a key risk factor for dying in a crash. Additional research is needed to further inform these priorities.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/IAXBeoPuxK0/130429094654.htm

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Irish court: No 'right to die' for paralyzed woman

DUBLIN (AP) ? A paralyzed Irish woman who wants to die cannot legally commit suicide with her partner's help, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that has moved the nation.

The seven-judge court said nothing in the country's 1937 constitution could authorize the deliberate taking of a life on humanitarian grounds. It said lawmakers could pass such a law to permit 59-year-old Marie Fleming to die at a time of her choosing, but no such statute existed yet.

Fleming, a former University College Dublin lecturer who is unable to move from the neck down because of advanced multiple sclerosis, testified that her life had been reduced to untreatable agony and she feared choking to death because she couldn't swallow.

Her lawyers argued that suicide was not a crime in Ireland, therefore a disabled person unable to end his or her own life should receive that help to be equal under the law. They also contended that Fleming's right to personal autonomy under the European Convention of Human Rights was being violated.

But Chief Justice Susan Denham said EU law permits nations to set their own policies on euthanasia, and the Irish constitution contains "no explicit right to commit suicide or to determine the time of one's own death."

As Denham read the judgment, Fleming's partner, Tom Curran, and the couple's three adult children cried and held hands. Fleming herself could not come to the courthouse because, Curran said, she was battling a chest infection that itself might prove lethal.

Outside the courthouse, Curran said he would help his partner die regardless of criminal penalties if she decided to proceed. After telephoning her to say the verdict was as they both had expected, Curran said the couple was determined to end her life at their home in County Wicklow south of Dublin. If charged and convicted of assisting suicide, Curran would face a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

"It's very difficult to understand how a person with a disability can be deprived of something that's legally available to everybody else. For that not to be discriminatory under the constitution, that's something we fail to understand. The constitution is there to protect people like Marie and to give them solace that they will be looked after," Curran said.

"We will now go back to Wicklow and live our lives until such time as Marie makes up her mind that she's had enough. And in that case, the court will have an opportunity to decide on my future," he said.

The family's lawyers have kept open the possibility of appealing their case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. But Curran said that might prove to be too much of an ordeal for his partner.

Most of the world has not legalized assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland have legalized the practice as have the U.S. states of Montana, Oregon and Washington, all under restricted circumstances.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/irish-court-no-die-paralyzed-woman-170946001.html

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever To Tell Turns Ten

We take a look back at the album that made the Yeah Yeah Yeahs stars ten years ago today.
By James Montgomery

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706456/yeah-yeah-yeahs-fever-to-tell-10-year-anniversary.jhtml

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First Data names JPMorgan executive Bisignano as CEO

MADRID, April 28 (Reuters) - Malaga kept up their push for a possible return to the Champions League next season with a 2-1 win at home Getafe that lifted them to fifth in La Liga on Sunday. Striker Roque Santa Cruz headed them in front just before halftime and defender Weligton doubled the lead with another header, this time from a corner, two minutes after the re-start. Getafe pulled one back with a close-range volley from Juan Valera in the 70th minute and Manuel Pellegrini's side endured some nervy moments near the end as they missed a number of chances to settle the game. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-data-names-jpmorgan-executive-bisignano-ceo-201829452.html

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Key shift in brain that creates drive to overeat identified

Apr. 29, 2013 ? A team of American and Italian neuroscientists has identified a cellular change in the brain that accompanies obesity. The findings could explain the body's tendency to maintain undesirable weight levels, rather than an ideal weight, and identify possible targets for pharmacological efforts to address obesity.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition this week, identify a switch that occurs in neurons within the hypothalamus. The switch involves receptors that trigger or inhibit the release of the orexin A peptide, which stimulates the appetite, among other behaviors. In normal-weight mice, activation of this receptor decreases orexin A release. In obese mice, activation of this receptor stimulates orexin A release.

"The striking finding is that you have a massive shift of receptors from one set of nerve endings impinging on these neurons to another set," said Ken Mackie, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. "Before, activating this receptor inhibited the secretion of orexin; now it promotes it. This identifies potential targets where an intervention could influence obesity."

The work is part of a longstanding collaboration between Mackie's team at the Gill Center for Biomolecular Science at IU Bloomington and Vincenzo Di Marzo's team at the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry in Pozzuoli, Italy. Both teams study the endocannabinoid system, which is composed of receptors and signaling chemicals that occur naturally in the brain and have similarities to the active ingredients in cannabis, or marijuana. This neurochemical system is involved in a variety of physiological processes, including appetite, pain, mood, stress responses and memory.

Food consumption is controlled in part by the hypothalamus, a portion of the brain that regulates many essential behaviors. Like other important body systems, food consumption is regulated by multiple neurochemical systems, including the endocannabinoid system, representing what Mackie describes as a "balance of a very fine web of regulatory networks."

An emerging idea, Mackie said, is that this network is reset during obesity so that food consumption matches maintenance of current weight, not a person's ideal weight. Thus, an obese individual who loses weight finds it difficult to keep the weight off, as the brain signals the body to eat more in an attempt to return to the heavier weight.

Using mice, this study found that in obesity, CB1 cannabinoid receptors become enriched on the nerve terminals that normally inhibit orexin neuron activity, and the orexin neurons produce more of the endocannabinoids to activate these receptors. Activating these CB1 receptors decreases inhibition of the orexin neurons, increasing orexin A release and food consumption.

"This study identifies a mechanism for the body's ongoing tendency to return to the heavier weight," Mackie said.

The researchers conducted several experiments with mice to understand how this change takes place. They uncovered a role of leptin, a key hormone made by fat cells that influences metabolism, hunger and food consumption. Obesity causes leptin levels to be chronically high, making brain cells less sensitive to its actions, which contributes to the molecular switch that leads to the overproduction of orexin.

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Journal Reference:

1. Luigia Cristino, Giuseppe Busetto, Roberta Imperatore, Ida Ferrandino, Letizia Palomba, Cristoforo Silvestri, Stefania Petrosino, Pierangelo Orlando, Marina Bentivoglio, Kenneth Mackie, and Vincenzo Di Marzo. Obesity-driven synaptic remodeling affects endocannabinoid control of orexinergic neurons. PNAS, April 29, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1219485110

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/xM2F7rud-Lw/130429154214.htm

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Gunmen surround Libyan foreign ministry

By Ghaith Shennib and Jessica Donati

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Gunmen surrounded Libya's Foreign Ministry on Sunday, calling for a ban on officials who worked for deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi holding senior positions in the new administration.

Just days after the French embassy in Tripoli was bombed, the armed protest raised fresh security fears in the capital and the German embassy suspended some of its activities.

At least 20 pick-up trucks loaded with anti-aircraft guns blocked the roads while men armed with AK-47 and sniper rifles directed the traffic away from the Foreign Ministry, witnesses said.

Armed groups also tried unsuccessfully to storm the Ministry of Interior and the state news agency, according to the prime minister who called a news conference to address the problem.

"These attacks will never get us down and we will not surrender," Ali Zaidan told reporters.

"Those who think the government is frustrated are wrong. We are very strong and determined."

Since Gaddafi was toppled by Western-backed rebels in 2011, Libya has been awash with weapons and roving armed bands that are increasingly targeting state institutions.

Tensions between the government and armed militias have been rising in recent weeks since a campaign was launched to dislodge the groups from their strongholds in the capital.

Sunday's protest was to demand a law - which has already been proposed - be passed, banning Gaddafi-era officials from senior government positions. The law could force out several ministers as well as the congress leader, depending on the wording adopted.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will remain closed until the political isolation law is implemented," the commander of the militia told Reuters.

The foreign ministry had been targeted because some officials employed there had worked for Gaddafi, he said.

Libya's legislature, the General National Congress, has previously been prevented from voting on the bill, when protesters barricaded assembly members inside a building for several hours in March demanding they adopt the law.

"The country will remain in crisis so long as these people are present," assembly member Tawfiq Al-Shehabi told Reuters.

The German embassy reduced its activities, a spokesman said, after the prime minister's assertion it had stopped work at its Tripoli mission.

"The German embassy continues to operate but public access is temporarily restricted," the spokesman said, declining to say how long the measures would remain in place.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-surround-libyan-foreign-ministry-014232122.html

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DNA at 60: Still Much to Learn

On the diamond jubilee of the double helix, we should admit that we don't fully understand how evolution works at the molecular level, suggests Philip Ball

By Philip Ball and Nature magazine

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Yikrazuul

This week's diamond jubilee of the discovery of DNA's molecular structure rightly celebrates how Francis Crick, James Watson and their collaborators launched the 'genomic age' by revealing how hereditary information is encoded in the double helix. Yet the conventional narrative ? in which their 1953 Nature paper led inexorably to the Human Genome Project and the dawn of personalized medicine ? is as misleading as the popular narrative of gene function itself, in which the DNA sequence is translated into proteins and ultimately into an organism's observable characteristics, or phenotype.

Sixty years on, the very definition of 'gene' is hotly debated. We do not know what most of our DNA does, nor how, or to what extent it governs traits. In other words, we do not fully understand how evolution works at the molecular level.

That sounds to me like an extraordinarily exciting state of affairs, comparable perhaps to the disruptive discovery in cosmology in 1998 that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating rather than decelerating, as astronomers had believed since the late 1920s. Yet, while specialists debate what the latest findings mean, the rhetoric of popular discussions of DNA, genomics and evolution remains largely unchanged, and the public continues to be fed assurances that DNA is as solipsistic a blueprint as ever.

The more complex picture now emerging raises difficult questions that this outsider knows he can barely discern. But I can tell that the usual tidy tale of how 'DNA makes RNA makes protein' is sanitized to the point of distortion. Instead of occasional, muted confessions from genomics boosters and popularizers of evolution that the story has turned out to be a little more complex, there should be a bolder admission ? indeed a celebration ? of the known unknowns.

DNA dispute
A student referring to textbook discussions of genetics and evolution could be forgiven for thinking that the 'central dogma' devised by Crick and others in the 1960s ? in which information flows in a linear, traceable fashion from DNA sequence to messenger RNA to protein, to manifest finally as phenotype ? remains the solid foundation of the genomic revolution. In fact, it is beginning to look more like a casualty of it.

Although it remains beyond serious doubt that Darwinian natural selection drives much, perhaps most, evolutionary change, it is often unclear at which phenotypic level selection operates, and particularly how it plays out at the molecular level.

Take the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, a public research consortium launched by the US National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Starting in 2003, ENCODE researchers set out to map which parts of human chromosomes are transcribed, how transcription is regulated and how the process is affected by the way the DNA is packaged in the cell nucleus. Last year, the group revealed that there is much more to genome function than is encompassed in the roughly 1% of our DNA that contains some 20,000 protein-coding genes ? challenging the old idea that much of the genome is junk. At least 80% of the genome is transcribed into RNA.

Some geneticists and evolutionary biologists say that all this extra transcription may simply be noise, irrelevant to function and evolution. But, drawing on the fact that regulatory roles have been pinned to some of the non-coding RNA transcripts discovered in pilot projects, the ENCODE team argues that at least some of this transcription could provide a reservoir of molecules with regulatory functions ? in other words, a pool of potentially 'useful' variation. ENCODE researchers even propose, to the consternation of some, that the transcript should be considered the basic unit of inheritance, with 'gene' denoting not a piece of DNA but a higher-order concept pertaining to all the transcripts that contribute to a given phenotypic trait.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=33f5adfe772bfdaa60803b0ad5f25773

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Italy's new economy minister aims to cut taxes and spending

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's new economy minister Fabrizio Saccomanni plans to cut taxes and public spending and lower borrowing costs, according to an interview published on Sunday in daily la Repubblica.

Saccomanni, formerly deputy governor of Italy's central bank, was sworn in as minister on Sunday as part of Prime Minister Enrico Letta's new coalition cabinet, a mix of center-right and center-left politicians and technocrats like Saccomanni.

Saccomanni told Repubblica he wanted to "restructure the state budget" to support companies and low-earners, while cutting some unproductive public spending to create resources needed to reduce taxes.

The confidence generated by these measures could allow Italy's borrowing costs to fall sharply, he said.

The interest rate differential between Italian benchmark bonds and their safer German equivalent benchmark bonds, often seen as the main indicator of investor confidence could fall to 1 percentage point or less from the current level of almost 3 points, he said.

In an interview with few direct quotes, Saccomanni said it was vital to remove political uncertainty and instill confidence to kick-start Italy's recession-bound economy.

To do this, he said he would propose a "pact" between banks, firms and consumers to boost lending, investments and consumption. He did not elaborate on what this pact could entail.

Saccomanni faces a tough task to revive the economy without allowing public finances to go off the rails and the political risks were spelled out on Sunday by a close ally of center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi whose support Letta depends on.

HOUSING TAX

Renato Brunetta, lower house leader of Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PDL) said the government would fall unless Letta promises in his maiden speech to urgently abolish an unpopular housing tax and repay the 2012 levy to taxpayers.

"If the prime minister doesn't make this precise commitment we will not give him our support in the vote of confidence," Brunetta told daily Il Messaggero.

Brunetta, who was himself a candidate for the post of economy minister said that during negotiations for the formation of the government Letta had "given his word" on the abolition and repayment of the tax, which would leave an 8 billion euros hole in public accounts.

Moody's analyst Dietmar Hornung said Italy's fiscal "maneuver space" was quite limited after its debt-to-GDP ratio had further increased from levels that were already high.

In an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday, Hornung, who oversees Italy, said Rome needed to boost its competitiveness by reforming its labor market, although he said prospects of a progression in economic reforms were "quite weak".

On Friday, Moody's kept Italy's sovereign debt rating at Baa2 thanks to the country's reasonably low current cost of funding and its primary surplus but kept its negative outlook.

(Writing by Gavin Jones, additional reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-economy-minister-aims-cut-taxes-spending-102649094.html

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B787 1st test flight in Japan since battery fire

TOKYO (AP) ? Japan's All Nippon Airways has successfully conducted its first test flight of the Boeing 787 aircraft since battery problems grounded the planes earlier this year.

Ray Conner, president of Boeing's consumer airline division, and ANA President Shinichiro Ito were aboard the flight Sunday.

The aircraft safely completed a two-hour flight before returning to Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

Batteries aboard two 787s failed less than two weeks apart in January, causing a fire aboard one plane and smoke in another. The root cause of those problems is still unknown.

Boeing has since developed and tested a revamped version of the battery system, with changes designed to prevent and contain a fire.

Japan's transport ministry approved Boeing's modifications Friday following similar steps by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/b787-1st-test-flight-japan-since-battery-fire-061821252.html

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LG will launch the world's first 55-inch curved OLED HDTV (update)

We heard that the curved OLED HDTV prototypes LG showed at CES would be coming soon, and now it's official. A Korean press release indicates we can expect the 55EA9800 to launch in the next month, with shipments starting in June. According to the specs, its 4.3mm depth results in a weight of just 17kg, probably thanks to a carbon-fiber reinforced frame. Like an IMAX theater screen, the edges are curved towards the viewer to provide a more immersive feeling. Given the fact that we're still waiting for LG's flat OLED TVs to see a wider release we doubt it will arrive on US shelves any time soon, but until then you can check out our in-person pics from CES below, and a video after the break.

Update: LG sent over the English press release, which confirms pre-orders start today at more than 1,400 retail locations with a price of 15 million Korean won ($13,500), a healthy bump over the standard version's $10K MSRP. Release dates and pricing for non-Korean markets are coming "in the months ahead," check after the break to read all the details first hand.

Gallery: LG's curved EA9800 OLED display eyes-on

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, LG

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Source: LG Korea

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/28/lg-curved-oled-hdtv/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Lawmaker: FBI checking training angle in bombing

FILE - In this Saturday, April 27, 2013 file photo, visitors pause at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, in Boston. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

FILE - In this Saturday, April 27, 2013 file photo, visitors pause at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, in Boston. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010 file photo, House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, arrives for a closed door executive session on Capitol Hill in Washington. McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

FILE - This file image from a Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security joint bulletin issued to law enforcement and obtained by The Associated Press, shows the remains of a pressure cooker that the FBI says was part of one of the bombs that exploded during the Boston Marathon. Rep. Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, says he believes the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had some training in carrying out their attack. McCaul is citing the type of device used in the attack, the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs, and the weapons' sophistication as signs of training. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Sunday that the FBI is investigating in the United States and overseas to determine whether the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing received training that helped them carry out the attack.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is charged with joining with his older brother, Tamerlan, who's now dead, in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs. The bombs were triggered by a remote detonator of the kind used in remote-control toys, U.S. officials have said.

U.S. officials investigating the bombings have told The Associated Press that so far there is no evidence to date of a wider plot, including training, direction or funding for the attacks.

A criminal complaint outlining federal charges against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described him as holding a cellphone in his hand minutes before the first explosion.

The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents.

"I think given the level of sophistication of this device, the fact that the pressure cooker is a signature device that goes back to Pakistan, Afghanistan, leads me to believe ? and the way they handled these devices and the tradecraft ? ... that there was a trainer and the question is where is that trainer or trainers," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, on "Fox News Sunday."

"Are they overseas in the Chechen region or are they in the United States?" McCaul said. "In my conversations with the FBI, that's the big question. They've casted a wide net both overseas and in the United States to find out where this person is. But I think the experts all agree that there is someone who did train these two individuals."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he thought it's "probably true" that the attack was not linked to a major group. But, he told CNN's "State of the Union," that there "may have been radicalizing influences" in the U.S. or abroad. "It does look like a lot of radicalization was self-radicalization online, but we don't know the full answers yet."

On ABC's "This Week," moderator George Stephanopoulos raised the question to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee about FBI suspicions that the brothers had help in getting the bombs together.

"Absolutely, and not only that, but in the self-radicalization process, you still need outside affirmation," responded Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

"We still have persons of interest that we're working to find and identify and have conversations with," he added.

At this point in the investigation, however, Sen. Claire McCaskill said there was no evidence that the brothers "were part of a larger organization, that they were, in fact, part of some kind of terror cell or any kind of direction."

The Missouri Democrat, who's on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "it appears, at this point, based on the evidence, that it's the two of them."

Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an ardent reader of jihadist websites and extremist propaganda, officials have said. He frequently looked at extremist sites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate.

In recent years, two would-be U.S. attackers reported receiving bomb-making training from foreign groups but failed to set off the explosives.

A Nigerian man was given a mandatory life sentence for trying to blow up a packed jetliner on Christmas Day 2009 with a bomb sewn into his underwear. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had tried to set off the bomb minutes before the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight landed.

The device didn't work as planned, but it still produced smoke, flame and panic. He told authorities that he trained in Yemen under the eye of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American-born cleric and one of the best-known al-Qaida figures.

A U.S. drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki in 2011.

In 2010, a Pakistani immigrant who tried to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square also received a life sentence. Faisal Shazad said the Pakistan Taliban provided him with more than $15,000 and five days of explosives training.

The bomb was made of fireworks fertilizer, propane tanks and gasoline canisters. Explosives experts said the fertilizer wasn't the right grade and the fireworks weren't powerful enough to set off the intended chain reaction.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-28-Boston%20Marathon-Congress/id-8a6376da8014442fa115039bb649d7bc

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Obama chides lawmakers over flight delay fix, budget conflict (reuters)

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

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SARMs + 5-alpha reductase blockers = a more effective cure for ...

Hello, have someone of you tried the combination of SARMS with 5-AR blockers (finasteride, Dutasteride)? I wonder, because I would like to share my experience.

Last year in summer, as I long-time minoxidil user for nearly 16 years, I wanted to regrow hair in my temples with the help of finasteride. I began in late June on 1 mg/day. After few weeks of mild shedding, I suddenly started to experience an almost explosive regrowth in early August. Well, it was mostly thin vellus hair, but I couldn't believe my eyes, because the hair was growing even on the sides of my forehead, which I previously regarded as utterly impossible. I thought that in the following months, I could get my NW 1.5 hairline to a cosmetically acceptable NW 1.

Alas, it didn't happen. In early September the regrowth stopped and in late October, everything turned upside down by 180 degrees and I started to lose hair in my temples. Now, I won't annoy you by the description of the following 6 months that were an ordeal for me. I still don't know, why I suddenly started to lose hair. But I think that I already know, why I was regrowing it in summer: It was not the effect of finasteride, but a concurrent use of finasteride with SARMS (Ostarine, S4) that I was taking in July and August.

Actually, I thought that the use of SARMS at the beginning of a finasteride therapy was not a good idea, and that SARMS would compromise the effect of finasteride, because in studies done in rats, their effect on prostate was roughly half that of finasteride. But I have no other explanation, because in December I did blood tests and my dihydrotestosterone was 32 ng/dl - an utter joke! In January, I achieved only a marginally lower value - 25 ng/dl, but at a much lower testosterone level. Considering that these values are not much different from the range in adult men (30-85 ng/dl) and considerably higher than those in the average finasteride user (ca. 15 ng/dl), I think that finasteride alone couldn't be responsible for the regrowth. It must have been the combined effect of finasteride and SARMS. The sudden end of this short regrowth phase coincided exactly with the quitting of SARMS, after all. Further, in July, I measured my testosterone and it was markedly suppressed - 50 ng/dl. So, SARMS suppressed testosterone, blocked dihydrotestosterone receptors, and finasteride probably erased the remaining dihydrotestosterone in my blood to such a degree that it was able to wake up my hair follicles. (I have never observed any hair regrowth on SARMS alone before!)

At this moment, the state of my hair is stable. The shedding slowed down and later stopped during March, after I started to add Dutasteride to my daily finasteride regime. Now I am at 0.33 mg/dut day + 1.25 mg fin/day, and my dihydrotestosterone levels finally began to drop (17 ng/dl). I am really curious, if increasing the Dutasteride dosage leads to the same regrowth like during the last summer. At least, I know that it is possible in me. Unfortunately, I don't plan to touch SARMS anymore, because the depressive winter shedding scared me so much that now I am afraid to use whatever anabolic drugs. (It's irrational, I know.) In any case, I think that my story can be an inspiration for other experimenters.

---

Last edited by EliteFitnessGuy; Today at 11:21 AM.

Source: http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/anabolic-steroids/sarms-5-alpha-reductase-blockers-more-effective-cure-hairloss-1198303.html

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GOP faces Senate recruitment woes in key states

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Republicans are struggling to recruit strong U.S. Senate candidates in states where the party has the best chances to reclaim the majority in Washington.

It's a potentially troubling sign that the GOP's post-2012 soul-searching could spill over into next year's congressional elections.

The vote is more than 18 months away, so it's early. But candidate recruitment efforts are well underway, and thus far Republicans have been unable to field a top-tier candidate in Iowa or Michigan.

In those two Mideast swing states, the GOP hopes to make a play for seats left open by the retirement of veteran Democrats.

The GOP is facing the prospect of contentious and expensive primaries in Georgia and perhaps West Virginia, Republican-leaning states where incumbents, one from each party, are not running again.

President Barack Obama is not on the ballot, so Republicans may have their best chance in years to try to retake the Senate. Changing the balance of power in the Senate would put a major crimp on Obama's efforts to enact his agenda and shape his legacy in the final two years of his presidency.

Republicans need to gain six seats to gain control of the Senate. Democrats will be defending 21 seats to Republicans' 14, meaning the GOP has more opportunities to try to win on Democratic turf.

Only recently, Republicans were reveling in the fact that several veteran Democrats were retiring in states where the GOP had not had a chance to win in decades.

Last week, Democrat Max Baucus of Montana became the latest to announce his retirement in a state that typically tilts Republican.

But so far there's been a combination of no-thank-you's from prospective Republican candidates in Iowa, slow movement among others in Michigan and lack of consensus elsewhere over a single contender.

All that has complicated the early goings of what historically would be the GOP's moment to strike. In the sixth year of a presidency, the party out of power in the White House usually wins congressional seats.

Democrats, despite this historical disadvantage, are fighting to reclaim the majority in the U.S. House, where control will be decided by a couple of dozen swing states.

After embarrassing losses in GOP-leaning Indiana and Missouri last year, the new Republican Senate campaign leadership is responding by wading deep into the early stages of the 2014 races.

Strategists are conducting exhaustive research on would-be candidates, making hard pitches for those they prefer and discouraging those they don't, to the point of advertising against them. The hope is to limit the number of divisive primaries that only stand to remind voters of their reservations about Republicans.

"It's more about trying to get consensus and avoid a primary that would reopen those wounds, rather than the party struggling to find candidates," said Greg Strimple, a pollster who and consultant to several 2012 Republican Senate campaigns.

The party's top national Senate campaign strategists are so concerned about squandering potential opportunities by failing to persuade popular Republicans to run in critical states that they were in Iowa last week to survey the landscape. The visit came after top Senate prospects U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, a prolific fundraiser, and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, a rising star, decided against running despite aggressive lobbying by the National Republican Senate Committee.

The committee's senior spokesman, Kevin McLaughlin, and its political director, Ward Baker, met privately Wednesday with state Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey and state Sen. Joni Ernst, who have expressed interest.

They invited Mark Jacobs, the former CEO of Reliant Energy, to breakfast Thursday. They also tried again, and in vain, it turns out, to persuade Terry Branstad, Iowa's longest-serving governor, to run for Senate instead of seeking another term as governor.

Despite all that, the Washington delegation shrugged off the recruitment troubles. "It's more important to take the time to get it right than it is to rush and get it wrong," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin and others have lamented the national party's decision not to intervene in the candidate selection last year, when Republicans lost races viewed as winnable in Indiana, Missouri and elsewhere.

The mission in Iowa for 2014 is to beat Democrat Bruce Braley, a four-term congressman trying to succeed retiring six-term Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. Braley is the party's consensus prospect. He's won Harkin's endorsement and already has raised more than $1 million for his campaign.

Democrats are similarly set in Michigan, where Democrat Carl Levin is leaving the Senate after six terms. The Democratic field has been all but cleared for three-term Rep. Gary Peters, who already has more than $800,000 toward his campaign.

Last week, Debbie Dingell, wife of Michigan Rep. John Dingell, opted not to run for the Senate, after some of her key donors made clear they were for Peters.

But, as in Iowa, Republicans have faced recruitment challenges in Michigan.

The GOP's Senate campaign committee is planning a visit soon to Michigan and hopes to coax U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers into the race.

There's a belief in GOP circles in Washington and in Michigan that the seven-term Rogers, a former FBI agent who's chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, would be a stronger candidate than two-term Rep. Justin Amash, a tea party favroite with little money in his campaign account.

National Republican officials also are working to head off primaries in several states and are taking sides when they can't. That includes in West Virginia, which Republican president nominee Mitt Romney won in 2012 and where six-term Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller is retiring.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito quickly announced her candidacy and became a favorite of the GOP establishment. Some conservatives complained about her votes for financial industry bailouts, and former state Sen. Patrick McGeehan has announced plans to challenge her.

National Republican Senate Committee officials said they would campaign and run ads against McGeehan if he appeared to be a threat.

In Georgia, several Republican candidates are considering trying to succeed the retiring Republican Saxby Chambliss. But so far, the two who have entered the race are arch conservative House members Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey.

National Republicans are treading carefully to avoid enraging the conservative base in Georgia. But the primary field could eventually include up to a half-dozen people.

At the local level, some Republicans are worried the delay is costing precious organizing and fundraising time.

"Every day Iowa Republicans spend talking about potential candidate deliberations ... is a day lost," said Matt Strawn, a former Iowa Republican Party chairman.

But others say that the meddling from Washington stifles the voices of voters, who they say ought to be in charge of shaping the party's future, even if the primary is loud and divisive.

"It's a truer reflection of where the Republican Party needs to go," said Iowa Republican Doug Gross, a veteran adviser to Branstad.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-faces-senate-recruitment-woes-key-states-071637703.html

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Germans fascinated by Nazi era eight decades later

By Gareth Jones

BERLIN (Reuters) - An exhibition chronicling the Nazi party's rise to power draws tens of thousands of visitors. Millions of TV viewers tune in to watch a drama about the Third Reich. A satirical novel in which Hitler pops up in modern Berlin becomes an overnight bestseller.

German interest in the darkest chapter of their history seems stronger than it has ever been as the country marks several key anniversaries this year linked to the Nazi era.

On TV talk shows, in newspapers and online, people endlessly debate the Nazi era - from what their own grandparents did and saw, to how the regime's legacy constrains German peacekeepers on overseas missions today, or why unemployed Greek and Spanish protesters lampoon Chancellor Angela Merkel as a new Hitler.

Next month, Germans will also be painfully reminded that the Nazis can still pose a threat today, when a young woman allegedly inspired by Hitler's ideology goes on trial over a spate of racist murders committed since 2000.

"The interest (in the Nazis) is especially visible just now because of the anniversaries," said historian Arnd Bauerkaemper.

January marked 80 years since Hitler became chancellor, May will see the 80th anniversary of the Nazis' symbolic burning of books they considered "un-German" and November the 75th anniversary of the 'Kristallnacht' pogrom against German Jews.

Adding urgency to the commemorations is the realization that the war generation is dying off and young people interested in what happened often have to seek information from other sources.

"Like the undead the demons keep coming back to life from the darkness of abstract history," said the Spiegel weekly in one of its numerous recent articles on the Nazi era.

"It's never over," was the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's headline on an interview with Nico Hofmann, producer of a three-part TV drama about five young Germans in 1941-45, "Unsere Muetter, unsere Vaeter" (Our Mothers, Our Fathers). The film drew more than seven million viewers when it aired in March.

GETTING PERSONAL

Hofmann said he produced the series partly for his own father, who volunteered to join Hitler's army aged 18.

The focus on individual stories is typical of the current interest in the 1930s and 1940s, said Bauerkaemper.

"This personalized drama really struck a chord, especially among young people who asked themselves how they would have coped if they had been alive at that terrible time," he said.

The TV series does not shy away from depicting the cruelty of the war or German guilt - prompting Bild to ask: "Were German soldiers really so brutal?" It also drew criticism from Russia and Poland, showing how sensitivity lingers seven decades on.

The Polish ambassador complained it showed Polish resistance fighters as anti-Semites. About a fifth of Poland's population, including most of its Jews, perished under Nazi occupation.

With his novel "Er ist wieder da" (He is Back), Timur Vermes taps into the perennial fascination with the personality of Adolf Hitler. It has sold more than 400,000 copies, is being translated into other languages and is being made into a movie.

The striking cover compresses the title into the shape of Hitler's trademark square moustache and the book sells for 19.33 euros ($25.14), a cheeky reference to the year the Nazis came to power.

In the novel, Hitler wakes up in 2011 to become a celebrity on German-Turkish TV and launch a new political career campaigning against speeding and dog muck on the pavements.

"I want to show that Hitler would have a chance to succeed today just as he did back then but in another way," Vermes said, lambasting what he called German complacency about the Nazis.

"DIVERSITY DESTROYED"

All year Berlin is staging exhibitions, plays, films, readings and other events under the rubric 'Diversity Destroyed' to commemorate the rich artistic and intellectual life of Weimar Germany destroyed by Hitler, and to provide glimpses into the life of ordinary people.

An exhibition in the German Historical Museum uses posters, newsreel, jazz, eyewitness accounts and artifacts from Nazi SS boots and pistols to ration cards to recreate the drama, horror and hopes of the time. Curator Simone Erpel said over 40,000 people visited the exhibition in its first three months.

"This strong interest in the Nazis is not new, of course, but what is relatively new is the level of official backing for such exhibitions," she said.

"It has become part of our common political culture to face the Nazi past. It is now very politically correct to remember the various victims, the Jews, the Roma, homosexuals, physically and mentally handicapped people and others," Erpel said.

Information stands in the city recount episodes from the era and the stories of opponents of the regime like Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich and writers Thomas Mann and Bertold Brecht.

"The diversity of cosmopolitan Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s was destroyed by the National Socialists in a short period of time," said Berlin's openly gay mayor Klaus Wowereit.

"That we can claim today to have regained such a degree of diversity is not a foregone conclusion. It is an achievement on the part of our city that we must actively seek to preserve."

($1 = 0.7689 euros)

(Reporting by Gareth Jones, editing by Stephen Brown and Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/germans-fascinated-nazi-era-eight-decades-later-104844726.html

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Medica Health Turns The Clock Back With ... - Miss Eco Glam

The Crystal Fusion Light technology will be unveiled at The Anti-Ageing Show weekend at London Olympia 11th and 12th May.? The cleverly devised 'plug and play' wellness device, Theragem Eternity, truly enhances?'Beauty from the Inside Out' through its powerful synergy of colour, light, electromagnetic frequencies, crystalline energy and precious metals.

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The Eternity range has been specially put together for health and beauty spas to meet the aesthetic needs of a modern age-resisting society, whilst at the same time having a profound positive effect on general wellbeing - not only will Eternity make you look fresh and revitalised but you will feel great in your body too - bringing into play the reality of Theragem's fundamental principle of 'A Happy Mind in A Happy Body!'.

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Theragem's technology balances the cellular level to regenerate a cell's efficiency, supporting production of collagen whilst boosting blood and fluid circulation in the body to provide youthful skin tonality.? Treatments come via beautifully hand-crafted Gemcups filled with over 30 carats of precious and semi precious gems and pre-programmed protocols for ease of use.? One can expect sparkling eyes, diminishing cellulite, revival of the detoxification and re-oxygenation processes, and rebalancing of the endocrine and chakra systems, while lips may be plumped and the lines of time smoothed away together with daily stress.? This is a whole package of relaxation for body and mind through enhancement of the body's self-regulatory system and is available for taster sessions at the Anti-Aging Show.

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Medica Health International Ltd is dedicated to providing the highest quality technology and services in the global integrative healthcare arena. ?A team of cutting edge medical advisors, scientists and engineers combine research and innovation to provide therapists around the world with the tools they need to achieve undeniable, positive and fast outcomes for their clients and patients.

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Source: http://www.missecoglam.com/news/item/5506-medica-health-turns-the-clock-back-with-theragem-eternity-at-anti-ageing-show

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This USB DAC Is Your Make-Music-Sing Deal of the Day

Even if you've got a sweet pair of cans, listening to music through the on-board jack on your phone or laptop can be underwhelming. That's why you need a little gadget called a DAC, or a digital-analog-converter. They take the flat, quiet sound that your crappy on-board audio produces and make it clearer and louder. Whitson Gordon over on Lifehacker has a great piece about why'd you want to use a DAC. Some beautiful DACs are audiophile-level gear with audiophile price tags to match, but Fiio makes nice little DACs that are affordable, and one of the nicest models is on sale today. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Jer5jHhYd-M/this-usb-dac-is-your-make+music+sing-deal-of-the-day

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Hands off "Game of Thrones", says U.S. ambassador to Australians

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Taking to Facebook, the U.S. ambassador to Australia is urging Australians to cease their illegal downloads of "Game of Thrones", saying that they are among the world's worst pirates of the wildly popular medieval television drama.

In a post titled "Stopping the Game of Clones", Jeffrey Bleich - himself a devotee of the HBO series - compared the rampant piracy of online thieves to the plotting and machinations of the noble houses in the show.

"Unfortunately, nearly as epic and devious as the drama is its unprecedented theft by online viewers around the world," he wrote on his official Facebook page.

"As the ambassador here in Australia, it was especially troubling to find out that Australian fans were some of the worst offenders with among the highest piracy rates of 'Game of Thrones' in the world".

TorrentFreak, a file-sharing news website, estimated that Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV series in 2012, with one episode notching 4.28 million pirated downloads, equal to the number of broadcast viewers for that episode, Bleich said.

When the second season began, Australian fans had to wait a week before being able to access new episodes by legitimate means, but the wait has come down to a few hours for the third season.

Neil Gane, managing director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT), said that surveys had found that unsurprisingly, most of the illegal downloaders said they did it because it was free.

Game of Thrones season 2 is priced at $38.99 in the Apple iTunes store in the United States and A$33.99 ($35.05) in the Australian store.

"The number of unauthorized downloads is staggering," he told Reuters in an email.

Based on the books by George R. R. Martin, the show follows a vast cast of characters fighting for control of the throne in the fictional world of Westeros.

"If the 4 million people who watched Game of Thrones legally had been illegal downloaders - the show would be off the air and there would never have been a season 3," Bleich said. ($1 = 0.9697 Australian dollars)

(Reporting By Thuy Ong; Editing by Elaine Lies and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hands-off-game-thrones-says-u-ambassador-australians-081628052.html

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Astronomers discover the Ed Begley Jr. of galaxies

An international team of researchers have spotted the most fuel-efficient galaxy yet, which converts nearly 100 percent of its hydrogen gas into stars.

By Eoin O'Carroll,?Staff / April 24, 2013

The tiny red spot in this image is one of the most efficient star-making galaxies ever observed, converting gas into stars at the maximum possible rate. Visible-light observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (inset) reveal that the starlight in this galaxy is extraordinarily compact, with most of the light emitted by a region just a fraction of the size of the Milky Way galaxy.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/IRAM

Enlarge

Six billion or so light years from here, there's a galaxy that seems to take seriously the old Lakota maxim about using the whole buffalo.

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Except by "use" we mean "form stars out of" and by "buffalo" we mean "interstellar hydrogen gas."?

Hydrogen gas is the fuel that galaxies use to make new stars, and most galaxies are the equivalent of a Hummer with a broken oxygen sensor, four flat tires, and a buffalo carcass strapped to the roof. Most of the gas meant to transport you gets wasted. But a new study has spotted a galaxy that is converting gas into stars at a rate hundreds of times that of our galaxy with almost 100 percent efficiency.

An international team of scientists looked at data from?NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and spotted a galaxy that was just blazing with infrared radiation, equivalent, they say, to a trillion suns. Observations from the Hubble telescope confirmed that the galaxy, which is affectionately known as?SDSSJ1506+54, is extremely compact, with most of the infrared light pouring from an area that is a fraction of the size of our own Milky Way.?

The researchers then used data from the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps to detect the presence of carbon monoxide, which indicates the presence of hydrogen. By combining the gas measurements with the rate of star formation, the scientists found that the galaxy was forming stars out of the gas at a rate that is close to the theoretical maximum. Their paper, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Astrophysical Letters, calls it "star formation at its most extreme."

A NASA press release explains just how this galaxy is achieving such efficiency:

In regions of galaxies where new stars are forming, parts of gas clouds are collapsing due to gravity. When the gas is dense enough to squeeze atoms together and ignite nuclear fusion, a star is born. But this process can be halted by other newborn stars, as their winds and radiation blow the gas outward. The point at which this occurs sets the theoretical maximum for star formation. The galaxy SDSSJ1506+54 was found to be making stars right at this point, just before the gas clouds would otherwise be blown apart.

"We see some gas outflowing from this galaxy at millions of miles per hour, and this gas may have been blown away by the powerful radiation from the newly formed stars," said Ryan Hickox, an astrophysicist at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., and a co-author on the study.

Why is this galaxy so efficient at converting hydrogen into stars while all the others are such slouches? It actually comes down to timing. We just happen to be witnessing the time period, six billion years ago, when this galaxy produces lots of stars. The researchers speculate that this period could have been triggered by the merging of two galaxies into one.?

In any case, it's a bright spot in our sky. As Discovery News's Ian O'Neill points out those living on a planet on the outskirts of this prolific star factory will have a "night" sky that is actually brighter than daylight.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/nSOMe2q9n60/Astronomers-discover-the-Ed-Begley-Jr.-of-galaxies

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Bush 43: 'History will ultimately judge ... I'm a content man' (CNN)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Coptic Orthodox leader to meet Pope Francis in May | Morocco ...

VATICAN CITY, April 24, 2013 (AFP)

The Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria?Tawadros II will meet Pope Francis next month in the Vatican ? the first?visit by a Coptic Orthodox leader in 40 years and the latest signs of growing?ties between the new pope and the Orthodox world.

Tawadros will visit various Vatican departments and is set to stay in Rome?for several days. His arrival is expected for May 10 or 11, Vatican spokesman?Federico Lombardi told AFP.

?Tawadros? predecessor Shenouda III met with pope Paul VI in 1973 and the?two launched a process of dialogue between their two Christian churches.

?The idea is to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that historic meeting,??Lombardi said.

The visit will be part of a European tour during which Tawadros will visit?different Coptic parishes ? his first foreign trip since his election in?November at a time in which the Coptic minority is faced with rising Islamism?in Egypt.

The meeting between Tawadros and Francis will be a further step in greater?dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox, after the patriarch of?Constantinople, Bartholomew, became the first spiritual leader of the world?s?Orthodox to attend a papal inauguration of Francis in March.

?Another sign of rapprochement is the fact that Tawadros last month attended?the inauguration of the new Coptic Catholic patriarch, Ibrahim Sidrak, an?unprecedented gesture.

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/04/88281/coptic-orthodox-leader-to-meet-pope-francis-in-may/

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High-volume Bitcoin exchanges less likely to fail, but more likely breached, says study

Apr. 24, 2013 ? As of April 2013, Bitcoin's market capitalization had soared to more than $1 billion, making it a frequent target of fraudsters. Bitcoins are encrypted virtual money created by computer programmers and not backed by any country or government.

A traceable form of cyber money, Bitcoins can be purchased and used much like hard currency to pay for goods and services, mostly over the Internet. Part of Bitcoins' attraction is its potential to reduce transaction fees for online purchases, as well as its mathematically-enforced protections against inflation.

Study authors Moore and Christin identified 40 Bitcoin exchanges worldwide that convert the cyber money into 33 hard currencies. Of those 40, 18 have gone out of business. Nine of the 40 experienced security breaches from hackers or other criminal activity, forcing five of them to subsequently close. Another 13 closed without any publicly announced breach, according to Moore and Christin.

From their study, the researchers found the failure rate of Bitcoin exchanges is 45 percent. The median lifetime of an exchange is just over one year, 381 days.

Of the 18 Bitcoin exchanges that closed, in 11 of those cases the authors were able to find evidence of whether or not the customers were reimbursed their money. Five exchanges didn't reimburse their customers. Six claim to have done so.

"The risk of losing funds stored at exchanges is real but uncertain," write Moore and Christin in "Beware the Middleman: Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin-Exchange Risk," which was invited for presentation at the 17th International Financial Cryptography and Data Security Conference held in Okinawa, Japan, April 1-5.

While various so-called crypto-currencies have been introduced in the past few years, Bitcoin is the first to be so widely adopted. Besides being open source, Bitcoin's attraction includes real-time peer-to-peer transactions, worldwide acceptance and low or no processing fees.

Crypto-currencies are intended to eliminate reliance on brick-and-mortar middlemen such as banks, exchanges, credit card conglomerates and other financial intermediaries. Despite that, and as a result of Bitcoin's booming popularity, a wide variety of middlemen have sprung up around the cyber currency. Those range from currency exchanges and online wallets to mining pools and legitimate or Ponzi scheme investment services, the authors said.

Moore and Christin focused their study on currency exchanges to examine the risk Bitcoin holders face from exchange failures.

Online exchanges that trade hard currency for the rapidly emerging cyber money known as Bitcoin have a 45 percent chance of failing -- often taking their customers' money with them.

The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.

Results showed also that currency exchanges that buy and sell a higher volume of Bitcoins are less likely to shut down, but more likely to suffer a security breach.

The study analyzed 40 exchanges that buy and sell the virtual Bitcoin to identify factors that trigger or stave off closure, said the study's authors, computer scientists Tyler W. Moore, in the Lyle School of Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Middlemen rise up in a system specifically meant to avoid middlemen

"Bitcoin is expressly designed to be completely decentralized with no single points of control," Moore said. "Yet currency exchanges have become de facto central authorities, and their success or failure drives Bitcoin's success or failure."

Recent wild fluctuations in the exchange rate of Bitcoins can be traced in part to the role of digital middlemen, he said, including the emergence of the currency exchanges that buy and sell Bitcoins.

Bitcoin's trading value at the start of the year was around $10 per Bitcoin. But its price soared as high as $260 earlier in April, then recently took a nosedive and is now hovering around $68, explained Moore.

"Much of that can be attributed to the Mt. Gox exchange temporarily shutting down because of heavy trading that overwhelmed the exchange," Moore said. "Studying why these exchanges fail helps us better understand the risks of Bitcoin."

Mt. Gox, based in Tokyo, is the most popular of the exchanges, with average daily transactions totaling more than 50,000 Bitcoins. Other high-volume exchanges include btc-e.com and Intersango.

Of the 40 exchanges Moore and Christin studied, the median for daily transactions carried out is 290. The mean is 1,716. Some 25 percent of exchanges process under 25 Bitcoins each day on average.

The findings of the study leave Bitcoin buyers in a dilemma: According to the study's empirical analysis, "Mt. Gox and Intersango are less likely to close than other exchanges" because of their high volume, the authors write.

But the study's logistic regression model yielded the result that the higher the transaction volume, the more likely a security breach by hackers. "More than 43,000 Bitcoins were stolen from the Bitcoinica trading platform in March 2012," the authors write, and "in September 2012, $250,000 worth of Bitcoins were pilfered from the Bitfloor currency exchange." Moreover, Mt. Gox has been breached multiple times.

Holding money at Bitcoin exchanges is risky

There are two ways to buy Bitcoins. Purchasers go online through an exchange such as Mt. Gox. They pay hard currency such as U.S. dollars at the market exchange rate, typically funded by a credit card. The exchange transfers the purchased Bitcoins to the buyer's Bitcoin address or the money remains in an online account maintained by the exchange.

"In the latter case, customers are at risk of losing their Bitcoins if the exchange suddenly closes," Moore said. "Believe it or not, many people -- if not most -- choose to leave the Bitcoins in the exchange account, thinking that their Bitcoins are better protected there and with faster access to convert back to hard currencies."

Bitcoins also can be purchased from local dealers. Buyers meet up with the dealer online or in person and pay cash for the Bitcoins, which are then transferred to the Bitcoin address provided.

Data for the study included daily trade volumes, average weighted daily price for conversions to other currencies, the lifetime of each exchange, whether investors were repaid following an exchange's closure, and whether the country where the exchange is based complies with the World Bank's regulations for Anti-Money-Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Southern Methodist University. The original article was written by Margaret Allen.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/computers_math/information_technology/~3/Ma14gld-5PQ/130424161112.htm

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