Lord of the Rings and Lego fans of the world, get ready to sink $200 in the new 2359-piece, 28-inch tall Lego Tower of Orthanc set, which includes six floors: dungeon, entrance hall, Saruman?s throne room, alchemy room, library and the secret attic to which you can access using a secret stair. It's now available for everyone at the Lego shop.
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FILE - This June 23, 2013 file photo shows a TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong. President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting all nations spy on each other, as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. American analyst-turned-leaker Edward Snowden, believed to be stranded for the past week at Moscow?s international airport, applied for political asylum to remain in Russia. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)
FILE - This June 23, 2013 file photo shows a TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong. President Barack Obama brushed aside sharp European criticism on Monday, suggesting all nations spy on each other, as the French and Germans expressed outrage over alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats. American analyst-turned-leaker Edward Snowden, believed to be stranded for the past week at Moscow?s international airport, applied for political asylum to remain in Russia. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)
This screenshot made of the Wikileaks website shows a letter identified as being from NSA leaker Edward Snowden on Monday, July 1, 2013. The letter could not be independently authenticated as being from Snowden himself. Wikileaks is the anti-secrecy group that has adopted Snowden and his cause. (AP Photo/Wikileaks)
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, looks on as his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro, left, shakes hands with presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Russian news agencies Tuesday quoted President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Snowden withdrew his request when he learnt about the terms Moscow has set out. (AP Photo/Maxim Shemetov, pool)
A view of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Leaker Edward Snowden has been caught in legal limbo in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. U.S. President Obama said Monday during his trip to Africa that every intelligence service in Europe, Asia and elsewhere does its best to understand the world better, and that goes beyond what they read in newspapers or watch on TV. It was an attempt to blunt European reaction to new revelations from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden that the U.S. spies on European governments.(AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov listens during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, July 2, 2013. NSA leaker Edward Snowden's attempts to seek refuge outside the United States hit hurdles Tuesday, after Russian media reported he canceled his asylum bid in Russia and several European countries said such applications wouldn't be considered if they were made from abroad. Russian news agencies Tuesday quoted President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Snowden withdrew his request when he learned about the terms Moscow has set out. Putin said on Monday that Russia is ready to shelter Snowden as long as he stops leaking U.S. secrets. ( AP Photo/Maxim Shemetov , pool)
MOSCOW (AP) ? NSA leaker Edward Snowden's best chance of finding refuge outside the United States may hinge on the president of Venezuela, who was in Moscow on Tuesday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela told Russian reporters on Tuesday that his country has not received an application for asylum from Snowden and dodged the question of whether he would take Snowden away with him. But Maduro also defended the former National Security Agency contractor who released sensitive documents on U.S. intelligence-gathering operations.
"He did not kill anyone and did not plant a bomb," Maduro said, the Interfax news agency reported. "What he did was tell a great truth in an effort to prevent wars. He deserves protection under international and humanitarian law."
Snowden withdrew his bid for asylum in Russia when he learned the terms Moscow had set out, according to Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to shelter Snowden as long as he stopped leaking U.S. secrets.
At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.
Snowden also has applied for asylum in 20 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, a secret spilling website. Several of those countries said he cannot apply from abroad. Officials in Germany, Norway, Austria, Poland, Finland, Switzerland and Spain all said he must make his request on their soil.
WikiLeaks said requests have also been made to Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Spain and Venezuela.
India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin says Delhi has carefully examined the asylum request and decided to turn it down.
Akbaruddin said Tuesday that the government has "concluded that we see no reason to accede to that request."
WikiLeaks also posted a statement attributed to Snowden on its website late Monday, in which he slams President Barack Obama for "using citizenship as a weapon."
"Although I am convicted of nothing, (the United States) has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person," Snowden says in the statement. "Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."
The asylum requests reported by WikiLeaks and the Snowden statement could not be independently authenticated.
A Swiss immigration official said it would be possible for Snowden to travel to Switzerland even though the U.S. has annulled his passport. He would need to apply for a humanitarian visa at a Swiss embassy abroad, said Celine Kohlprath, a spokeswoman for the Swiss Federal Office for Migration. Such a visa would be granted if his life was in "immediate danger." With the visa he would be allowed to enter Switzerland for three months during which he could formally apply for asylum.
Snowden, who has been on the run since releasing the sensitive NSA documents, is believed to have been in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23.
WikiLeaks legal adviser Sarah Harrison delivered the request for asylum to an official at the Russian consulate at the Moscow airport on Sunday, according to the group that has adopted Snowden and his cause.
Ecuador, where he had initially hoped to get asylum, has been giving mixed signals about offering him shelter.
Britain's Press Association news agency said it had obtained a letter from Snowden to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa thanking him for considering his asylum request.
"There are few world leaders who would risk standing for the human rights of an individual against the most powerful government on earth, and the bravery of Ecuador and its people is an example to the world," PA quoted the letter as saying. The agency said it had obtained the Spanish-language letter from sources in Quito, the capital of Ecuador.
Correa, however, appeared cool to Snowden an interview with the Guardian newspaper.
Asked whether he would like to meet Snowden, Correa was quoted as saying: "Not particularly. He's a very complicated person. Strictly speaking, Mr. Snowden spied for some time."
He was quoted as saying that Ecuador would not consider an asylum request until Snowden was on its territory and his government would not help him travel to Ecuador.
The expanded requests for asylum come as the Obama administration contends with European allies angry about the release of documents that alleged U.S. eavesdropping on European Union diplomats.
Obama said Monday that the U.S. would provide allies with information about new reports that the NSA had bugged EU offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. But he also suggested such activity by governments would hardly be unusual.
French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that France has "not received any particular requests from Mr. Snowden." He also called for a common EU stance on the NSA snooping.
France prides itself on being a haven for political prisoners, and offers asylum to more people annually than any other country but the United States. French politicians on the far right and far left have called for France to take Snowden in ? as have members of the Green party, which is a part of Hollande's Socialist-led government. However, it is unlikely that France would take in Snowden. Hollande and leading French officials, despite outraged comments in recent days, sees the US as a key ally.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman in Beijing said it was not aware of Snowden's possible plea to seek asylum in China.
___
Associated Press writers Lynn Berry in Moscow, Frank Jordans in Berlin, George Jahn in Vienna, Matti Huutanen in Helsinki, Finland, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, Angela Charlton in Paris, Ciaran Giles in Madrid, Spain, and AP researchers Zhao Liang and Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.
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Microbes exposed to a small amount of silver become more vulnerable to antibiotic attack. Karen Hopkin reports
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If you?re plagued by werewolves, reach for the silver. And more mundane health problems may also respond well to the silver solution. Because a new study shows that microbes exposed to a pinch of the precious metal become more vulnerable to antibiotic attack. The research is in the journal Science Translational Medicine. [Jose Ruben Morones-Ramirez et al., Silver Enhances Antibiotic Activity against Gram-Negative Bacteria]
Silver?s long been a medical treatment. Hippocrates himself applied it to open wounds. But its use as a cure for contagion fell by the wayside with the discovery of penicillin, and the source of its bug-blasting abilities remained a mystery. Until now.
Researchers treated E. coli bacteria with small amounts of silver. They found that the metal messes with the bugs? proteins, wreaking havoc on their metabolism. It also generates reactive chemicals that attack the microbes from within. All this weakens the bacteria?s defenses, which allows other, more conventional antibiotics to slip in and do their work. Even killing microbes that were formerly antibiotic resistant.
Mice with fatal infections were also saved with a silver and antibiotic combo, and at doses that did the sick rodents no harm. This silver was delivered by injection. For werewolves, the preferred silver delivery system is still the bullet.
?Karen Hopkin
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/sciam/chemistry/~3/G7LGt6QgqWk/episode.cfm
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July 2, 2013 ? Humor is an intrinsic part of human experience. It plays a role in every aspect of human existence, from day-to-day conversation to television shows. Yet little research has been conducted to date on the psychological function of humor. In human psychology, awareness of the impermanence of life is just as prevalent as humor. According to the Terror Management Theory, knowledge of one's own impermanence creates potentially disruptive existential anxiety, which the individual brings under control with two coping mechanisms, or anxiety buffers: rigid adherence to dominant cultural values, and self-esteem bolstering.
A new article by Christopher R. Long of Ouachita Baptist University and Dara Greenwood of Vassar College is titled Joking in the Face of Death: A Terror Management Approach to Humor Production. Appearing in the journal HUMOR, it documents research on whether the activation of thoughts concerning death influences one's ability to creatively generate humor. As humor is useful on a fundamental level for a variety of purposes, including psychological defense against anxiety, the authors hypothesized that the activation of thoughts concerning death could facilitate the production of humor.
For their study, Long and Greenwood subdivided 117 students into four experimental groups. These groups were confronted with the topics of pain and death while completing various tasks. Two of the test groups were exposed unconsciously to words flashed for 33 milliseconds on a computer while they completed tasks -- the first to the word "pain," the second to the word "death." The remaining two groups were prompted in a writing task to express emotions concerning either their own death or a painful visit to the dentist. Afterward, all four groups were instructed to supply a caption to a cartoon from The New Yorker.
These cartoon captions were presented to an independent jury who knew nothing about the experiment. The captions written by individuals who were subconsciously primed with the word death were clearly voted as funnier by the jury. By contrast, the exact opposite result was obtained for the students who consciously wrote about death: their captions were seen as less humorous.
Based on this experiment, the researchers conclude that humor helps the individual to tolerate latent anxiety that may otherwise be destabilizing. In this connection, they point to previous studies indicating that humor is an integral component of resilience.
In light of the finding that the activation of conscious thoughts concerning death impaired the creative generation of humor, Long and Greenwood highlight the need for additional research, not only to explore the effectiveness of humor as a coping mechanism under various circumstances, but also to identify its emotional, cognitive, and/or social benefits under conditions of adversity.
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NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Cairo where a large crowd of people are gathered to protest Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's handling of the country one year after he was elected.
By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News
Tens of thousands of opponents and supporters of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi flooded the streets of Cairo on Sunday ahead of competing protests that observers warn could descend into mayhem and bloodshed.
Swarms of anti-government demonstrators massed in Tahrir Square, crucible of the 2011 so-called ?Arab Spring? uprisings?that overthrew autocratic leader?Hosni Mubarak.
"The people want the fall of the regime!" they chanted, many waving national flags ? this time not against an aging dictator but against their first ever elected leader, who took office only a year ago to the day.
Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters
Protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi shout slogans against him and brotherhood members during a protest at Tahrir square in Cairo June 30, 2013.
At the same time, legions of Morsi's allies were assembling outside the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque near the Ittihadiya?presidential palace, some wearing military-style regalia and carrying shields and clubs, according to The Associated Press.
Although both sides have pledged to keep the peace, observers worry that Sunday's rallies could set off a wave of ugly violence. At least seven people, including an American college student from Maryland, have been killed in clashes in the last week, with hundreds of others wounded.
The planned protests represent the peak of a year of turbulence and turmoil in which Egypt has been rocked by scores of political crises, dozens of bloody clashes and a declining economy that has set off a spate of power outages, fuel shortages, skyrocketing prices and routine lawlessness and crime.
The opposing sides of the conflict are representative of the bitter political, social, and religious divisions in contemporary Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood and other hard-line groups form the backbone of the pro-Morsi camp. Many of Morsi's proponents have characterized the protests as a conspiracy by Mubarak's political allies to return the former leader to power.
The anti-government movement brings together secular and liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims and Christians, and wide swaths of the general public the opposition says has rejected the Islamists and their regime.
Liberal leaders say nearly half all Egyptian voters ? some 22 million people ? have signed a petition calling for new elections.
"We all feel we're walking on a dead-end road and that the country will collapse," said Mohamed El-Baradei, a former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and now liberal party leader in his homeland.
Despite mounting pressure, Morsi did not buckle in advance of the preplanned protests, dismissing the widespread dissent as an undemocratic assault on his electoral legitimacy, Reuters reported.
Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters
Protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi shout slogans against him and members of the Muslim Brotherhood during a demonstration in Tahrir square in Cairo June 30, 2013.
But he also proposed to make changes to the new, Islamist-inflected constitution, saying he was not personally responsible for controversial clauses on religious authority, which stirred up liberal animosity and triggered the popular revolt, according to Reuters.
For many Egyptians, though, all the turmoil that has followed the Arab Spring has just made life harder. Standing by his lonely barrow at an eerily quiet downtown Cairo street market, 23-year-old Zeeka was afraid more violence was coming.
"We're not for one side or the other," he told Reuters. "What's happening now in Egypt is shameful. There is no work, thugs are everywhere ... I won't go out to any protest.
"It's nothing to do with me. I'm a tomato guy."
Protests in Egypt have occurred around the country in the last few days, with more expected Sunday. The demonstrations come two years after former president Hosni Mubarak was removed from power, and some are hoping the current protests will unseat Egypt's current leader Muhammed Morsi. NBC's Aymen Mohyeldin reports.
Visiting sub-Saharan Africa, President Barack Obama has cautioned that rancor in the largest Arab country could rattle the region.
"Every party has to denounce violence," Obama said in Pretoria, South Africa, on Saturday. "We'd like to see the opposition and President Morsi engage in a more constructive conversation about how they move their country forward because nobody is benefiting from the current stalemate."
?Washington has evacuated non-essential personnel and redoubled security at its diplomatic missions in Egypt.
Reuters and The Associated Press?contributed to this report.
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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN |
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) - The Philippines hit out at China on Sunday over the "increasing militarization" of the South China Sea as tensions between the neighbours flared amid slow-moving regional efforts to forge a compromise over one of Asia's naval flashpoints.
The rebuke by Philippine Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario at a regional summit in Brunei came a day after China's state media warned of an inevitable "counterstrike" against the Philippines if it continued to provoke Beijing.
Friction between China and the Philippines over disputed territories in the oil and gas rich sea has surged since last year due to several naval stand-offs and fraying diplomatic efforts to forge a regional agreement on maritime conduct.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) hopes to persuade Beijing to join talks on a proposed Code of Conduct (CoC) this year, but China's naval action has alarmed some nations, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam.
Most recently, the Philippines accused China of encroaching on its territory after three Chinese ships converged just 5 nautical miles (9 km) from a small reef where the Philippines maintains a small military force.
This month the Philippines moved more troops and supplies to the reef, which is within its 200-nautical mile (370 km) economic exclusion zone. China, which does not recognise the zone, condemned it as an "illegal occupation".
Del Rosario said the "massive" presence of Chinese military and paramilitary ships at the Second Thomas shoal and at another reef called the Scarborough Shoal - the site of a tense standoff last year - was a threat to regional peace.
"The statement on counterstrike is an irresponsible one. We condemn any threats of use of force," Del Rosario told reporters in Brunei following a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers.
He said the ministers had discussed China's ongoing "illegal" occupation of the Scarborough Shoal, which is just 124 nautical miles (230 km) of the Philippine coast.
EXPANSIVE CLAIMS
China and the Philippines have accused each other of flouting a confidence-building 2002 "declaration of conduct" agreed by ASEAN and Beijing. China has appeared in little hurry to begin negotiations on a more comprehensive deal.
"A declaration of conduct is the foundation we need to lay before we can start working on a CoC," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Brunei.
"Both sides have to create that basis before we can move forward. It is a process, a step-by-step process."
The worsening dispute comes as Philippine-ally the United States, which says it has a national interest in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, shifts its military attention back to Asia. Secretary of State John Kerry is due to arrive in Brunei on Monday to join the regional summit.
Critics say China is intent on cementing its vast claims over the sea through its superior and growing naval might, and has little interest in rushing to agree a code of conduct with ASEAN nations, four of which have competing claims.
Divisions among ASEAN over the maritime dispute burst into the open a year ago when a summit chaired by Chinese ally Cambodia failed to issue a closing communique for the first time in the group's 45-year history.
(Additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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