Last year NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory revealed a Spiderman-inspired grippy claw
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/_1Nalm2_Ow0/nasas-rock-climbing-robot-could-tackle-everest-with-ea-1459401161FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2013 file photo, Justin Bieber performs during his 'Believe' world tour in Panama City. The website of Brazil's biggest news outlet has published photos apparently showing pop star Justin Bieber spray painting graffiti on a wall and says police want to question him. Defacing buildings is - a crime in Brazil punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco, File)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The website of Brazil's biggest news outlet published photos Wednesday it says show pop star Justin Bieber spray painting graffiti on a wall. And it adds that police want to question him about it.
The O Globo newspaper reported that photographers snapped photos of Bieber as he painted graffiti on a wall of the former Hotel Nacional in Rio de Janeiro Tuesday morning.
Defacing buildings is a crime in Brazil punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine.
O Globo said police went to the mansion Bieber rented in Rio to question him, but he was not there.
Phone calls and emails to the police department for more details went unanswered. Calls and emails to Bieber representatives Melissa Victor, Nick Styne and Aaron Rosenberg were not returned.
According to the Globo TV network Bieber flew out of Brazil Wednesday afternoon on a private jet and went to Paraguay, where he was scheduled to perform.
In the Colombian capital of Bogota, where he performed last week, Bieber upset authorities when he spray-painted graffiti on a wall along one of the capital city's main avenues while being escorted by officers in a police car.
___
Online (Portuguese language site): http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-janeiro/noticia/2013/11/justien-bieber-pode-ser-condenado-pagar-multa-por-pichacao-no-rio.html
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs are set to hire San Diego Padres bench coach Rick Renteria as their manager, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the hiring has not been announced. The team was expected to make it official on Thursday.
The move ends a long search that began with the last-place Cubs targeting New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi, only to be denied a shot when he decided to stay put.
Instead, the Cubs are hoping Renteria can help develop their young players and lead them to their first championship since 1908. He replaces Dale Sveum, who was fired after two seasons.
The Cubs went 66-96 this season and finished at the bottom of the NL Central.
A former major league infielder, Renteria spent the past six years on the Padres' staff and had been their bench coach since 2011. Before that, he coached and managed in the San Diego and Florida Marlins organizations.
Renteria also managed Mexico in the World Baseball Classic in March.
The Cubs are counting on him to get the most out of young players such as shortstop Starlin Castro and first baseman Anthony Rizzo, along with prospects such as Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Albert Almora and Kris Bryant.
The lack of development by young players on the roster was a major sticking point with Sveum. And with more young players on the way, the front office decided it was time for a change.
The Cubs were 127-197 under Sveum and finished in last place for the first time in seven years.
They had targeted Girardi, a Peoria, Ill., native and Northwestern product who played for them. But the former catcher signed a four-year contract worth up to $20 million to stay with New York through 2017.
That forced the Cubs to look elsewhere.
Besides Renteria, they interviewed former Mariners and Indians manager Eric Wedge, Rays bench coach Dave Martinez, former Nationals and Indians manager Manny Acta, former Diamond-backs manager A.J. Hinch, and Brad Ausmus, who was hired by the Tigers on Sunday.
They were also interested in talking to Boston bench coach Torey Lovullo. But according to reports, the Red Sox invoked an agreement banning Cubs president Theo Epstein from hiring any of their employees over a three-year period.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-11-06-BBN-Cubs-Renteria/id-1fd3ca909c754e59b53407366ba77fdfIt's a near-guarantee that you haven't been to a Blockbuster this year, or possibly this decade. And after today's announcement that the company is shutting down its 300 remaining stores, you likely never will again. But that doesn't mean that video stores have outlived their usefulness—or, especially, that streaming is anywhere near ready to replace it.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/DJar85JWUFo/rip-blockbuster-or-why-cant-i-watch-indiana-jones-1459602835If you've got a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or other kind of portable Mac that contains a battery, OS X Mavericks has made it easier than ever to figure out and keep track of exactly what's using your battery life. So if you find your battery draining quickly, one click can help you determine what the cause is. Here's how:
That's all there is to it. Amongst our staff, Google Chrome always seems to be in the list. If you're experiencing the same, let us know in the comments!
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/fDiuZ1tBXY4/story01.htm![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tlqcjn0Laujn0MGAIqGhuTYlD9MleMbv7jWW-RXx-d3sFCi2GEiU-TKjCoeR31wKUhfYG8ZDwbt2t3Z-T_-XhNkDQ5Tc-C9G-Os8TfTZc=s0-d){kind=small}
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 6-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Jo Bowler
j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk
44-013-927-22062
University of Exeter
New research on pond snails has revealed that high levels of stress can block memory processes. Researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Calgary trained snails and found that when they were exposed to multiple stressful events they were unable remember what they had learned.
Previous research has shown that stress also affects human ability to remember. This study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that experiencing multiple stressful events simultaneously has a cumulative detrimental effect on memory.
Dr Sarah Dalesman, a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, from the University of Exeter, formally at the University of Calgary, said: "It's really important to study how different forms of stress interact as this is what animals, including people, frequently experience in real life. By training snails, and then observing their behaviour and brain activity following exposure to stressful situations, we found that a single stressful event resulted in some impairment of memory but multiple stressful events prevented any memories from being formed."
The pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, has easily observable behaviours linked to memory and large neurons in the brain, both useful benefits when studying memory processes. They also respond to stressful events in a similar way to mammals, making them a useful model species to study learning and memory.
In the study, the pond snails were trained to reduce how often they breathed outside water. Usually pond snails breathe underwater and absorb oxygen through their skin. In water with low oxygen levels the snails emerge and inhale air using a basic lung opened to the air via a breathing hole.
To train the snails not to breathe air they were placed in poorly oxygenated water and their breathing holes were gently poked every time they emerged to breathe. Snail memory was tested by observing how many times the snails attempted to breathe air after they had received their training. Memory was considered to be present if there was a reduction in the number of times they opened their breathing holes. The researchers also assessed memory by monitoring neural activity in the brain.
Immediately before training, the snails were exposed to two different stressful experiences, low calcium - which is stressful as calcium is necessary for healthy shells - and overcrowding by other pond snails.
When faced with the stressors individually, the pond snails had reduced ability to form long term memory, but were still able to learn and form short and intermediate term memory lasting from a few minutes to hours. However, when both stressors were experienced at the same time, results showed that they had additive effects on the snails' ability to form memory and all learning and memory processes were blocked.
Future work will focus on the effects of stress on different populations of pond snail.
###
The research was supported by Alberta Innovates Health Solutions and Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is published in PLOS ONE: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079561
For further information, video and images:
Dr Jo Bowler
University of Exeter Press Office
Office: +44 (0)1392 722062
Mobile: +44(0)7827 309 332
Twitter: @UoE_ScienceNews
j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk
Academic Contact:
Dr Sarah Dalesman
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
S.Dalesman@exeter.ac.uk
About the University of Exeter
The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13, the University of Exeter is a Russell Group university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 18,000 students and is ranked 8th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide league table, 10th in The Complete University Guide and 12th in the Guardian University Guide 2014. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the University's research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20.
The University has invested strategically to deliver more than 350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses in the last few years; including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange on the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, together with world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute. There are plans for another 330 million of investment between now and 2016.
http://www.exeter.ac.uk
Share
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.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 6-Nov-2013
ShareContact: Jo Bowler
j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk
44-013-927-22062
University of Exeter
New research on pond snails has revealed that high levels of stress can block memory processes. Researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Calgary trained snails and found that when they were exposed to multiple stressful events they were unable remember what they had learned.
Previous research has shown that stress also affects human ability to remember. This study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that experiencing multiple stressful events simultaneously has a cumulative detrimental effect on memory.
Dr Sarah Dalesman, a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, from the University of Exeter, formally at the University of Calgary, said: "It's really important to study how different forms of stress interact as this is what animals, including people, frequently experience in real life. By training snails, and then observing their behaviour and brain activity following exposure to stressful situations, we found that a single stressful event resulted in some impairment of memory but multiple stressful events prevented any memories from being formed."
The pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, has easily observable behaviours linked to memory and large neurons in the brain, both useful benefits when studying memory processes. They also respond to stressful events in a similar way to mammals, making them a useful model species to study learning and memory.
In the study, the pond snails were trained to reduce how often they breathed outside water. Usually pond snails breathe underwater and absorb oxygen through their skin. In water with low oxygen levels the snails emerge and inhale air using a basic lung opened to the air via a breathing hole.
To train the snails not to breathe air they were placed in poorly oxygenated water and their breathing holes were gently poked every time they emerged to breathe. Snail memory was tested by observing how many times the snails attempted to breathe air after they had received their training. Memory was considered to be present if there was a reduction in the number of times they opened their breathing holes. The researchers also assessed memory by monitoring neural activity in the brain.
Immediately before training, the snails were exposed to two different stressful experiences, low calcium - which is stressful as calcium is necessary for healthy shells - and overcrowding by other pond snails.
When faced with the stressors individually, the pond snails had reduced ability to form long term memory, but were still able to learn and form short and intermediate term memory lasting from a few minutes to hours. However, when both stressors were experienced at the same time, results showed that they had additive effects on the snails' ability to form memory and all learning and memory processes were blocked.
Future work will focus on the effects of stress on different populations of pond snail.
###
The research was supported by Alberta Innovates Health Solutions and Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is published in PLOS ONE: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079561
For further information, video and images:
Dr Jo Bowler
University of Exeter Press Office
Office: +44 (0)1392 722062
Mobile: +44(0)7827 309 332
Twitter: @UoE_ScienceNews
j.bowler@exeter.ac.uk
Academic Contact:
Dr Sarah Dalesman
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow
S.Dalesman@exeter.ac.uk
About the University of Exeter
The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13, the University of Exeter is a Russell Group university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 18,000 students and is ranked 8th in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide league table, 10th in The Complete University Guide and 12th in the Guardian University Guide 2014. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90% of the University's research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20.
The University has invested strategically to deliver more than 350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses in the last few years; including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange on the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, together with world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute. There are plans for another 330 million of investment between now and 2016.
http://www.exeter.ac.uk
Share
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.
