The new regulations take effect March 1, 2012, and seem to resume a plan that was issued--then abandoned--slightly more than a year ago. That proposal, focused on prime-time TV programming, sparked mass protests by Cantonese speakers which led to the plan's quiet retraction.
Yet the current regulation will go much farther, requiring specific permits for all media to broadcast in Cantonese. Some local media are expressing doubt that existing programs will be affected, while speculating that Party authorities' real goal is to supply an additional means of keeping track of and potentially shutting down new media organizations.
Some locals are already speaking out, as did one freelance writer in Guangdong who spoke with NTD.
[Tian Li, Freelance Writer]:
"We can speak Mandarin outside, but will certainly speak Cantonese locally.
Their requirements are against people 's will, and simply unpopular. They will collapse faster this way."
NTDTV
Israel is moving forward with plans to hold the largest-ever missile defense exercise in its history this spring amid Iranian efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
Last week, Lt.-Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the US’s Third Air Force based in Germany, visited Israel to finalize plans for the upcoming drill, expected to see the deployment of several thousand American soldiers in Israel.
The drill, which is unprecedented in its size, will include the establishment of US command posts in Israel and IDF command posts at EUCOM headquarters in Germany – with the ultimate goal of establishing joint task forces in the event of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East.
The US will also bring its THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and shipbased Aegis ballistic missile defense systems to Israel to simulate the interception of missile salvos against Israel.
The American systems will work in conjunction with Israel’s missile defense systems – the Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome.
Gorenc came to Israel for talks with Brig.-Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Force’s Air Defense Division.
He toured one of the Iron Dome batteries in the South and the Israel Test Bed lab in Holon where the IAF holds its interception simulation exercises.
The IAF is planning to deploy a fourth battery of the Iron Dome counter-rocket system in the coming months and is mulling the possibility of stationing it in Haifa to protect oil refineries located there.
The Defense Ministry has allocated a budget to manufacture an additional three Iron Dome batteries by the end of 2012. IAF operational requirements call for the deployment of about a dozen batteries along Israel’s northern and southern borders.
The IAF is also moving forward with plans to deploy Rafael’s David’s Sling missile defense system, which is designed to defend against medium-range rockets and cruise missiles. Rafael recently completed a series of successful navigation and flight tests of the David’s Sling’s interceptor and plans to hold the first interception test by mid-2012.
Jerusalem Post
Restricting the number of calories you eat activates genes linked to longevity and keeps the brain functioning properly for longer, according to research on mice.
Low calorie diets have previously been shown by several animal studies to extend life, reduce the risk of dementia and disease and boost the memory but experts were unsure exactly how this happened.
Now a team of Italian scientists claims that eating fewer calories triggers a protein called CREB1, which turns on genes which are linked to a longer and healthier life.
The researchers, from the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome, said their discovery could lead to new drugs which could keep the brain in a healthy, youthful state without the need for a restrictive diet.
Mice which are only permitted 70 per cent of the calories they would normally eat typically live a third longer than normal and demonstrate better memory and mental function.
They are also less likely to suffer from obesity or diabetes, slower to develop dementia and show less aggression.
In contrast having too rich a diet is thought to bring forward the brain ageing process and raise the risk of age-related diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
According to the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, eating fewer calories stimulates activates the CREB1 protein which in turn switches on sirtuins, molecules which are associated with longevity.
The finding backs up previous studies on CREB1, which is known to play a key role in a variety of processes in the brain including memory and learning.
Because CREB1 is weakened as we grow older, triggering it by eating less could help slow down the mental ageing process, scientists believe.
Researchers demonstrated that by limiting the amount of calories mice were able to eat, they could significantly boost the activity of CREB1 in the brain and reduce signs of ageing in the brain.
Genetically engineered mice in whom the molecule had been permanently deactivated did not get the same benefit from dieting, however.
Dr Giovambattista Pani, who led the research, said: "This discovery has important implications to develop future therapies to keep our brain young and prevent brain degeneration and the ageing process.
"Our hope is to find a way to activate CREB1, for example through new drugs, so to keep the brain young without the need of a strict diet."
The Telegraph
Russia will develop a new liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile to overcome the U.S.’s prospective missile defense system, Strategic Missile Forces chief Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said on Friday.
A decision has been made to create a new silo-launched heavy missile that will have “enhanced capability to breach a hypothetical US missile defense system,” he said.
The new missile will replace the Voyevoda R-36M2 Satan ICBM.
Russia’s solid-propellant ICBMs may be unable to penetrate missile defenses, the general said.
He also said the Strategic Missile Forces will test launch 11 ICBMs next year.
The United States is building a missile defense system in Europe to protect against possible attack from ‘rogue states’ such as Iran.
Karakayev said Iran has neither technology nor industrial potential to build ballistic missiles.
There have been media reports about test launches of Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles but the SMF doubts these missiles will have the effective range to reach Europe, he said.
RIANOVOSTI
Just 24 hours after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told CBS that Iran could build a nuclear bomb in a year or less, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff issued a warning: "Iran is playing a dangerous game that could ensnare the Middle East, the Middle East and others into conflict and a renewed arms race." During a stop in Afghanistan, the general spoke to CNN of concerns about Iran's ambitions from Iraq to Afghanistan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
He was described as quietly leading the ongoing military planning for an attack against Iran's nuclear weapons if the president gives the order to do so. "We are examining a range of options," said the US general. "Don't push it," he warned Iran.
DEBKAfile's military and Washington sources say it should be noted that in the space of 24 hours, America's two top security figures have referred to war with Iran as a realistic and imminent possibility. This is a big step from the customary US references to a military option as being on the table as a last resort for halting Iran's march toward a nuclear bomb still calculated to be some years in the distant future.
Gen. Dempsey went on to say: "My biggest worry is they (the Iranians) will miscalculate our resolve. Any miscalculation could mean that we are drawn into conflict, and that would be a tragedy for the region and the world."
There is no guarantee that Israel will give the United States warning if it decides to attack Iran, he said, "But America is sharing intelligence with Israel. We are trying to establish some confidence on the part of the Israelis that we recognize their concerns and are collaborating with them on addressing them," the US general said.
Gen. Dempsey clarified another controversial point when he said the loss of the drone is not the end of US efforts to figure out what Iran is doing. America is gathering intelligence against Iran in a variety of means. "It would be rather imprudent of us not to try to understand what a nation who has declared itself to be an adversary of the United States is doing."
Defkafile
TEHRAN - Iran has moved most of its government websites from foreign-based hosting companies to new computer facilities inside the country, to protect them against cyber attacks, a senior official said on Tuesday.
The new security arrangements were announced a year after a Iran said a powerfulcomputer virus known as Stuxnet attacked computers at its Bushehr nuclear reactor.
"The location of the hosts of more than 90 percent of Iran's governmental internet sites has been transferred inside the country," Ali Hakim Javadi, Iran's deputy minister for communications and information technology, told the official IRNA news agency.
"This was a vital move for protecting governmental information," he added.
Javadi said more than 30,000 Iranian websites belonging to ministries and other government bodies had until recently been hosted by companies in North America and other countries.
"The data could have been exposed to constant danger at any moment," he said.
A computer expert who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said the measure would have only limited impact.
"It can't be a very effective measure since the sites can be hacked from any corner of the world. However, it can restrict physical accessibility to the computers that store the data."
Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor was hit by "cyber-weapon" Stuxnet in what Tehran said was an attack by Israel and the United States.
Western leaders suspect Iran's nuclear program is a disguised effort to develop nuclear bombs, while Tehran maintains it is designed to produce electricity.
The existence of Stuxnet became public knowledge around the time that Iran began loading fuel into Bushehr, its first nuclear reactor, last August.
Iran downplayed the impact of the virus and said in September that staff computers at Bushehr had been hit but that the plant itself was unharmed.
Bushehr have missed several start-up deadlines. This has prompted speculation that Stuxnet damaged the plant, something Iran denies.
Iranian officials have said the virus could have posed a major risk had it not been discovered and dealt with before any major damage was done.
Jerusalem Post
German scientists have created a machine that manufactures human skin using cells from a baby boy’s foreskin.
The scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute hope the skin they’ve been able to produce will provide a humane alternative to using animals in testing of cosmetics and other products, a German news service, the Deutsche Presse Agentur, reported.
The machine has been dubbed the “Skin Factory.” It is about 22 feet long, 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide. It fosters the growth of skin samples from cells extracted from foreskins of boys 4 years-old or younger who are circumcised.
Before a child’s foreskin was contributed to the project, their parents provided the scientists with permission, according to Germany’s Suedkurier newspaper.
Foreskins were not used by the scientists merely because they were a source of excess human skin cells.
“The older one gets, the worse the cells function,” engineer Andreas Traube told the DPA.
“It's also important that the cells come from as uniform a source as possible, in order to avoid abnormalities in the production of new skin.”
The scientists are also looking into using stem cells as a source for skin production.
After the cells from the foreskins have multiplied inside the machine, they’re injected into a gel that forces them to grow into a sheet that simulates the epidermis — the outermost layer of human skin. To create a model that simulates human skin, three of these layers are fused together, according to the Suedkurier.
The process of growing new skin takes about six weeks. At present, the Fraunhofer Institute is producing about 5,000 new samples per month, the DPA reported.
For their next project, the scientists are working on reproducing the human cornea.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/german-scientists-grow-artificial-skin-cells-baby-foreskins-article-1.994464#ixzz1hB0SiAoP
