The last of the summer corn is hitting markets everywhere, and if you want a fast and safe way to get the corn off of the cob for salads, soups, or sautees, this method from the folks at Saveur uses a bundt pan to make the process a snap.
Of course, this method only works if you have a bundt pan to begin with. If you do it right however, you get all of the corn right into the pan without cutting yourself or spraying corn around your kitchen. It's fast and easy?the only change we'd make is to the knife technique in the video: You'll have an easier time slicing down the cob if you start slicing at the heel of your knife and draw the blade across and down the corn cob instead of just pushing it from top to bottom. Even so, it's a solid method, and if you don't have a bundt pan, a wide mixing bowl could do the job just as well.
Protein impedes microcirculation of malaria-infected red blood cellsPublic release date: 30-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- When the parasite responsible for malaria infects human red blood cells, it launches a 48-hour remodeling of the host cells. During the first 24 hours of this cycle, a protein called RESA undertakes the first step of renovation: enhancing the stiffness of the cell membranes.
That increased rigidity impairs red blood cells' ability to travel through the blood vessels, especially at fever temperatures, according to a new study from researchers at MIT, the Institut Pasteur and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
This marks the first time that scientists have identified the specific role of the RESA protein in modulating blood circulation in an environment that mimics physiological conditions, and could help researchers determine new strategies to combat malaria, which infects an estimated 300 to 500 million people worldwide each year.
The study coordinated by MIT's Ming Dao, a principal research scientist in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE); Monica Diez Silva, a research scientist in DMSE; and YongKeun Park, an assistant professor of physics at KAIST appears Aug. 30 in Scientific Reports, an online journal of Nature.
Other MIT authors are Subra Suresh, former dean of the MIT School of Engineering and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering who is currently on leave from MIT serving as the director of the National Science Foundation; Jongyoon Han, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS); Sha Huang, an EECS graduate student; recent PhD recipient Hansen Bow; and the late Michael Feld, professor of physics.
This paper is the culmination of a collaboration between MIT and Institut Pasteur begun in 2004 when Suresh spent a sabbatical in Paris. The new results on dynamic microcirculation significantly extend earlier static experiments by the Suresh lab and the Pasteur team published in 2007, in which they found that RESA makes the red blood cell membrane stiffer than that of a healthy red blood cell by binding to the cell's internal scaffolding, called the cytoskeleton.
"The new work combines the latest advances in genetics, microfabrication, nanomechanics and computational modeling by bringing together interdisciplinary and international teams," says Suresh, the senior author of the paper.
Parasite invasion
When a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, bites a human, the parasite invades the liver, where it divides to produce tens of thousands of merozoites the form that can infect red blood cells. After several days or weeks, these merozoites are released into the bloodstream.
In the next stage of infection, the merozoites take up residence inside the red blood cells for about 48 hours, producing more copies of themselves. The RESA protein is expressed only during the first 24 hours, which is known as the "ring stage" due to the circular shape of the merozoites. During this stage, RESA "almost singlehandedly" alters the mechanical properties of red blood cell membranes, Dao says.
For the new study, the researchers created a microfluidic system at MIT that allowed them to study how RESA influences malaria-infected cells as they circulate. As cells flow through the microfluidic channels, they encounter narrow openings that are about the same width as the smallest capillaries (about three micrometers, or about 4 percent of the thickness of the human hair). The team found that malaria-infected cells passed through these channels much more slowly than healthy cells, due to the increased rigidity of the cells caused by the RESA protein.
The researchers also studied infected blood cells as they flowed through a microbead filtration system created at the Institut Pasteur. This system, which consists of densely packed tiny spheres, mimics the structure of the human spleen, which filters blood and removes old blood cells.
While RESA made the infected cells more rigid, they were still able to make it through the microbead system, suggesting that they would also slip through the spleen undetected. "In the ring stage the majority of the infected cells still go past, producing new parasites," Diez Silva says.
The researchers also found that RESA's effects on membrane stiffness and deformability are enhanced at fever temperatures: At these higher temperatures, RESA stabilizes the cell membrane so that it won't disintegrate. This is advantageous to the parasite because it helps the cell remain intact until the end of the 48-hour cycle, allowing it to produce many more copies of itself.
Stopping the cycle
During the second 24 hours of the red blood cell infection, when RESA is no longer expressed, the parasite starts producing other proteins that make the cells even more rigid. They also churn out proteins that cause the cells to clump together and stick to the walls of blood vessels. At the end of the 48-hour cycle, the infected red blood cells burst and release new copies of the parasite, which target new cells and start the cycle over again.
Because they are so sticky, infected blood cells can't reach the spleen during this stage, so there is no chance for them to be filtered out. The new findings suggest that it might be beneficial to seek drugs that boost RESA expression during the first half of the cycle, when cells are still able to get into the spleen, the researchers say. Then, because the cells would be more rigid than typical infected blood cells, the spleen might be able to capture more of them.
The researchers are now further exploring how the spleen interacts with malaria-infected cells. The new microfluidic system used to mimic microcirculation in the small blood vessels is also being further studied as a novel diagnostic tool for detecting malaria and other diseases.
###
The research was funded by the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Center, the National Institutes of Health, the KAIST Institute for Optical Science and Technology, and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche.
Written by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | 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.
Protein impedes microcirculation of malaria-infected red blood cellsPublic release date: 30-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- When the parasite responsible for malaria infects human red blood cells, it launches a 48-hour remodeling of the host cells. During the first 24 hours of this cycle, a protein called RESA undertakes the first step of renovation: enhancing the stiffness of the cell membranes.
That increased rigidity impairs red blood cells' ability to travel through the blood vessels, especially at fever temperatures, according to a new study from researchers at MIT, the Institut Pasteur and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
This marks the first time that scientists have identified the specific role of the RESA protein in modulating blood circulation in an environment that mimics physiological conditions, and could help researchers determine new strategies to combat malaria, which infects an estimated 300 to 500 million people worldwide each year.
The study coordinated by MIT's Ming Dao, a principal research scientist in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE); Monica Diez Silva, a research scientist in DMSE; and YongKeun Park, an assistant professor of physics at KAIST appears Aug. 30 in Scientific Reports, an online journal of Nature.
Other MIT authors are Subra Suresh, former dean of the MIT School of Engineering and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering who is currently on leave from MIT serving as the director of the National Science Foundation; Jongyoon Han, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS); Sha Huang, an EECS graduate student; recent PhD recipient Hansen Bow; and the late Michael Feld, professor of physics.
This paper is the culmination of a collaboration between MIT and Institut Pasteur begun in 2004 when Suresh spent a sabbatical in Paris. The new results on dynamic microcirculation significantly extend earlier static experiments by the Suresh lab and the Pasteur team published in 2007, in which they found that RESA makes the red blood cell membrane stiffer than that of a healthy red blood cell by binding to the cell's internal scaffolding, called the cytoskeleton.
"The new work combines the latest advances in genetics, microfabrication, nanomechanics and computational modeling by bringing together interdisciplinary and international teams," says Suresh, the senior author of the paper.
Parasite invasion
When a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, bites a human, the parasite invades the liver, where it divides to produce tens of thousands of merozoites the form that can infect red blood cells. After several days or weeks, these merozoites are released into the bloodstream.
In the next stage of infection, the merozoites take up residence inside the red blood cells for about 48 hours, producing more copies of themselves. The RESA protein is expressed only during the first 24 hours, which is known as the "ring stage" due to the circular shape of the merozoites. During this stage, RESA "almost singlehandedly" alters the mechanical properties of red blood cell membranes, Dao says.
For the new study, the researchers created a microfluidic system at MIT that allowed them to study how RESA influences malaria-infected cells as they circulate. As cells flow through the microfluidic channels, they encounter narrow openings that are about the same width as the smallest capillaries (about three micrometers, or about 4 percent of the thickness of the human hair). The team found that malaria-infected cells passed through these channels much more slowly than healthy cells, due to the increased rigidity of the cells caused by the RESA protein.
The researchers also studied infected blood cells as they flowed through a microbead filtration system created at the Institut Pasteur. This system, which consists of densely packed tiny spheres, mimics the structure of the human spleen, which filters blood and removes old blood cells.
While RESA made the infected cells more rigid, they were still able to make it through the microbead system, suggesting that they would also slip through the spleen undetected. "In the ring stage the majority of the infected cells still go past, producing new parasites," Diez Silva says.
The researchers also found that RESA's effects on membrane stiffness and deformability are enhanced at fever temperatures: At these higher temperatures, RESA stabilizes the cell membrane so that it won't disintegrate. This is advantageous to the parasite because it helps the cell remain intact until the end of the 48-hour cycle, allowing it to produce many more copies of itself.
Stopping the cycle
During the second 24 hours of the red blood cell infection, when RESA is no longer expressed, the parasite starts producing other proteins that make the cells even more rigid. They also churn out proteins that cause the cells to clump together and stick to the walls of blood vessels. At the end of the 48-hour cycle, the infected red blood cells burst and release new copies of the parasite, which target new cells and start the cycle over again.
Because they are so sticky, infected blood cells can't reach the spleen during this stage, so there is no chance for them to be filtered out. The new findings suggest that it might be beneficial to seek drugs that boost RESA expression during the first half of the cycle, when cells are still able to get into the spleen, the researchers say. Then, because the cells would be more rigid than typical infected blood cells, the spleen might be able to capture more of them.
The researchers are now further exploring how the spleen interacts with malaria-infected cells. The new microfluidic system used to mimic microcirculation in the small blood vessels is also being further studied as a novel diagnostic tool for detecting malaria and other diseases.
###
The research was funded by the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Center, the National Institutes of Health, the KAIST Institute for Optical Science and Technology, and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche.
Written by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | 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.
New 'traffic light' test could save lives with earlier diagnosis of liver diseasePublic release date: 29-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Becky Attwood r.attwood@soton.ac.uk 44-023-805-95457 University of Southampton
A new 'traffic light' test devised by Dr Nick Sheron and colleagues at University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital could be used in primary care to diagnose liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in high risk populations more easily than at present.
Liver disease develops silently without symptoms, and many people have no idea they have liver failure until it is too late one-third of people admitted to hospital with end-stage liver disease die within the first few months. A simple test available in primary care could diagnose disease much earlier, enabling those at risk to change their behaviour and save lives.
The Southampton Traffic Light (STL) test, details of which are published in the September 2012 issue of the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP), combines several different tests and clinical markers which are given a score that indicates the patient's likelihood of developing liver fibrosis and liver cirrhosis.*
The result comes in three colours: red means that the patient has liver scarring (fibrosis) and may even have cirrhosis, green means that there is no cirrhosis and the patient is highly unlikely to die from liver disease over the next five years. Amber means there is at least a 50:50 chance of scarring with a significant possibility of death within five years, and patients are advised to stop drinking to avoid further disease and death.
The test was given to over 1,000 patients, and their progress was carefully followed and monitored afterwards, in some cases over several years, to assess the accuracy of the test in predicting whether they developed liver fibrosis or cirrhosis.
The test proved to be accurate in severe liver disease, and while not a substitute for clinical judgement or other liver function tests, can provide GPs with an objective means to accurately assess the potential severity of liver fibrosis in high-risk patients for example, heavy drinkers, those with type II diabetes, or obese people.
Dr Nick Sheron, lead author and Head of Clinical Hepatology at the University of Southampton, and consultant hepatologist at Southampton General Hospital, said: "We are reliant on general practitioners detecting liver disease in the community so they can intervene to prevent serious liver problems developing, but so far we haven't been able to give them the tools they need to do this. We hope that this type of test for liver scarring may start to change this because the earlier we can detect liver disease, the more liver deaths we should be able to prevent."
Study co-author and GP Dr Michael Moore said: "In primary care, minor abnormalities of existing liver tests are quite common but we struggle to know how best to investigate these further and who warrants specialist intervention. The traffic light test has the advantage of highlighting those at highest risk who should be investigated further and those in whom the risk is much lower where a watchful approach is more appropriate. This is not a universal screening test but if targeted at those in whom there is a suspicion of liver disease should result in a more rational approach to further investigation."
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance added: "One of the challenges of liver disease, which is rising dramatically in this country, is the silent nature of the condition until it is often too late to reverse the damage. However, minor changes in standard liver blood tests are so common that it is difficult for GPs to know when to refer for specialist advice. This large study from Dr Sheron and colleagues in Southampton may prove really useful for guiding the right patients towards specialist care in a timely way."
###
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New 'traffic light' test could save lives with earlier diagnosis of liver diseasePublic release date: 29-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Becky Attwood r.attwood@soton.ac.uk 44-023-805-95457 University of Southampton
A new 'traffic light' test devised by Dr Nick Sheron and colleagues at University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital could be used in primary care to diagnose liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in high risk populations more easily than at present.
Liver disease develops silently without symptoms, and many people have no idea they have liver failure until it is too late one-third of people admitted to hospital with end-stage liver disease die within the first few months. A simple test available in primary care could diagnose disease much earlier, enabling those at risk to change their behaviour and save lives.
The Southampton Traffic Light (STL) test, details of which are published in the September 2012 issue of the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP), combines several different tests and clinical markers which are given a score that indicates the patient's likelihood of developing liver fibrosis and liver cirrhosis.*
The result comes in three colours: red means that the patient has liver scarring (fibrosis) and may even have cirrhosis, green means that there is no cirrhosis and the patient is highly unlikely to die from liver disease over the next five years. Amber means there is at least a 50:50 chance of scarring with a significant possibility of death within five years, and patients are advised to stop drinking to avoid further disease and death.
The test was given to over 1,000 patients, and their progress was carefully followed and monitored afterwards, in some cases over several years, to assess the accuracy of the test in predicting whether they developed liver fibrosis or cirrhosis.
The test proved to be accurate in severe liver disease, and while not a substitute for clinical judgement or other liver function tests, can provide GPs with an objective means to accurately assess the potential severity of liver fibrosis in high-risk patients for example, heavy drinkers, those with type II diabetes, or obese people.
Dr Nick Sheron, lead author and Head of Clinical Hepatology at the University of Southampton, and consultant hepatologist at Southampton General Hospital, said: "We are reliant on general practitioners detecting liver disease in the community so they can intervene to prevent serious liver problems developing, but so far we haven't been able to give them the tools they need to do this. We hope that this type of test for liver scarring may start to change this because the earlier we can detect liver disease, the more liver deaths we should be able to prevent."
Study co-author and GP Dr Michael Moore said: "In primary care, minor abnormalities of existing liver tests are quite common but we struggle to know how best to investigate these further and who warrants specialist intervention. The traffic light test has the advantage of highlighting those at highest risk who should be investigated further and those in whom the risk is much lower where a watchful approach is more appropriate. This is not a universal screening test but if targeted at those in whom there is a suspicion of liver disease should result in a more rational approach to further investigation."
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance added: "One of the challenges of liver disease, which is rising dramatically in this country, is the silent nature of the condition until it is often too late to reverse the damage. However, minor changes in standard liver blood tests are so common that it is difficult for GPs to know when to refer for specialist advice. This large study from Dr Sheron and colleagues in Southampton may prove really useful for guiding the right patients towards specialist care in a timely way."
###
[ | E-mail | 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.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off El Salvador late on Sunday, triggering a brief tsunami warning along a stretch of the central American coast but causing no major damage or casualties, early reports indicated. The quake hit about 74 miles offshore at a depth of just over 20 km (12 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It earlier gave the magnitude as 7.4. A small tsunami hit the El Salvador port of Acajutla following the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. ...
Wajam, the increasingly popular social search engine, uses a browser plugin to embed its own search results on Google, Bing and numerous other search and shopping sites. For the most part, this limits Wajam to the desktop, but now, the service is also finally coming to mobile. Starting tomorrow, the company will allow its users to see its social search results whenever they do a Google search in Safari and on Google Maps on the iPhone. Due to the locked-down nature of the iPhone, where browser plugins for Safari are not an option, this shouldn't even be possible and displaying its search results on Apple's mobile platform presented some obvious challenges for the company. The Wajam team, however, found a pretty ingenious way to get around these limitations.
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) ? Fast friends in the Little League dorms, the boys from Japan and Tennessee played one last game Sunday to decide which team would be crowned World Series champions.
Noriatsu Osaka's big bat helped send the team from Tokyo home with the title banner.
Osaka's third home run of the game put an exclamation point on Japan's 12-2 victory over Tennessee in five innings in the Little League World Series championship game Sunday.
The 12-year-old Osaka added a triple for good measure in his 4-for-4 afternoon. In a symbolic gesture, Japan's players jogged the traditional postgame victory lap carrying the flags for both their home country and the United States.
"We had such a great time in Pennsylvania and we really played a good game today. It was kind of a, 'Thanks,'" Osaka said through an interpreter.
Starter Kotaro Kiyomiya struck out eight in four innings and added an RBI single for Japan. The game ended in the fifth after Osaka's third homer made it a 10-run game.
"We thought we played the best in the tournament so far, especially to win by the 10-run rule in the finals," said 12-year-old Rintaro Hirano, who homered in the fourth to make it 10-1.
A day after pounding out a 24-16 win over California in the U.S. title game, the Goodlettsville, Tenn., sluggers could only muster two hits ? solo homers by Brock Myers and Lorenzo Butler.
It was a bittersweet final for two teams that grew close during their two weeks in South Williamsport. They exchanged customary postgame handshakes at the plate before Japan received the World Series championship banner and took their warning-track run.
"Tennessee was our best friends in the U.S. division," Kiyomiya said.
Japan's jog finally stopped in front of the team's giddy cheering section as proud family members and friends stood shoulder-to-shoulder to take pictures through the infield fence.
There were so many highlights, including five home runs off Tennessee pitching.
That was more than enough offense for 13-year-old ace Kiyomiya, who had a fastball clocked in the high-70s. The right-hander with the hitch in mid-delivery pitched like a big league ace in allowing just one hit.
Regardless, this is still a banner year for Goodlettsville after its exhausting victory Saturday over Petaluma, Calif., for the U.S. championship. That game set a record for most combined runs in the World Series.
The thrilling victory kept the Tennessee players and their families up late into the night.
"(The parents) must have partied harder than the kids did," manager Joey Hale said. "I knew we'd be flat today."
Tennessee lost a 10-run lead in the bottom of the sixth of that game before scoring nine times the next inning to finally put away Petaluma in a Little League classic. Even more impressively, Butler had three homers and a record nine RBIs ? a feat so unique the 12-year-old's name became a trending topic on Twitter.
Butler went deep again off reliever Osaka in the fifth ? Butler's fourth homer in two days ? to cut the lead to 10-2 and give Goodlettsvile some hope. Tennessee's mini-mashers have proven they can break out any time at the plate.
"It feels really good and it was really great," Butler said simply about his hitting exploits. He said his three homers Saturday were the longest he had hit all season.
Its pitching depth sapped, Tennessee turned to right-hander Justin Smith to start against Japan ? the first time the 12-year-old had pitched in the World Series or in Southeast regional tournament.
"Everybody knew our pitching was depleted and we were bound for a letdown," Hale said. "I'm not saying we were going to beat Japan. I think they were the best team here at everything by far, pitching, hitting. But I think last night is how we want to be remembered."
Leadoff hitter Osaka, 12, didn't waste any time with a first-pitch triple to the right-field corner in the first. Kiyomiya delivered his RBI single two batters later to get the scoring started.
Osaka then homered in the second to left-center, just in front of the "Little League" sign above the fence, before leading off the fourth with his second homer, this time to center, for a 6-1 lead.
The Kitasuna league all-star team from Tokyo won Japan's eighth Little League title and second in three seasons.
While his players danced around in delight after the game, skipper Yoichi Kubo teared up. He kept his composure after managing a team that won the World Series in 2001, "but I was crying this time when we won this game as world champion," he said.
Smith pitched admirably in a tough spot, allowing five runs and seven hits over three innings while striking out three. His team was trying to make history as the first squad from Tennessee to win youth baseball's biggest prize.
Goodlettsville also was the first Tennessee team to advance to South Williamsport since Morristown in 1987. The suburban Nashville crew counts among its fans Rays ace David Price, who is from Murfreesboro.
They might be done with baseball for now, but the celebration is just beginning back home. On Tennessee's social calendar is a visit to the Vanderbilt season opener Thursday night against South Carolina.
"When we get home, it's going to be a carnival," Hale said.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011 file photo, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is pictured during her trial, at the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev, Ukraine. Lawyers for Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader who has been jailed and convicted of abusing her office, are appealing before the European Court of Human Rights, with the hearing on Tuesday Aug. 28, 2012, it comes one day before a court in Ukraine is expected to rule on her appeal against her conviction, which she says is politically motivated. Tymoshenko was an architect of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution. She was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 over allegations involving a gas contract negotiated while she was prime minister. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011 file photo, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is pictured during her trial, at the Pecherskiy District Court in Kiev, Ukraine. Lawyers for Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader who has been jailed and convicted of abusing her office, are appealing before the European Court of Human Rights, with the hearing on Tuesday Aug. 28, 2012, it comes one day before a court in Ukraine is expected to rule on her appeal against her conviction, which she says is politically motivated. Tymoshenko was an architect of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution. She was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 over allegations involving a gas contract negotiated while she was prime minister. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)
Yulia Tymoshenko's daughter, Eugenia Tymoshenko, arrives at the European Court of Humans Rights in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, Aug. 28 2012 before the hearing of her mother's case against Ukraine. Lawyers for Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader who has been jailed and convicted of abusing her office, are appealing before the European Court of Human Rights. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 over allegations involving a gas contract negotiated while she was prime minister. (AP Photo/Cedric Joubert)
Yulia Tymoshenko's lawyer Sergy Vlasenko sits at the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, Aug. 28 2012 before the hearing of her mother's case against Ukraine. Lawyers for Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader who has been jailed and convicted of abusing her office, are appealing before the European Court of Human Rights. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 over allegations involving a gas contract negotiated while she was prime minister. (AP Photo/Cedric Joubert)
Yulia Tymoshenko's daughter, Eugenia Tymoshenko, waits wait one of her mother's lawyers, Sergy Vlasenko, at the European Court of Humans Rights in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, Aug. 28 2012 during the hearing of her mother's case against Ukraine. Lawyers for Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader who has been jailed and convicted of abusing her office, are appealing before the European Court of Human Rights. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 over allegations involving a gas contract negotiated while she was prime minister. (AP Photo/Cedric Joubert)
Yulia Tymoshenko's daughter, Eugenia Tymoshenko, walks behind her mother's lawyer Sergy Vlasenko at the European Court of Humans Rights in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, Aug. 28 2012 before the hearing of her mother's case against Ukraine. Lawyers for Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian opposition leader who has been jailed and convicted of abusing her office, are appealing before the European Court of Human Rights. Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 over allegations involving a gas contract negotiated while she was prime minister. (AP Photo/Cedric Joubert)
STRASBOURG, France (AP) ? Lawyers for Ukraine's jailed opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, appealed to Europe's human rights court Tuesday as her only hope for a fair hearing, accusing the government of rigging the criminal case against her. A lawyer for the government denied any political motive and said her complaints about prison conditions and injuries were groundless.
An architect of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, Tymoshenko has been jailed since her arrest in a courtroom in August 2011, accused of negotiating a corrupt gas deal with Russia when she was prime minister. Supporters of the charismatic leader famed for her golden braids say she was jailed as the most potent threat to her political archrival, President Viktor Yanukovich.
Tuesday's testimony covered both the mundane questions of prison cell windows and cold running water, and the significant issues of inmate privacy, abuse and political retribution. Since the initial charges, the government has continued to build allegations against Tymoshenko: She went on trial in June on charges of evading several million dollars in taxes 15 years ago, and is the subject of a slew of other criminal investigations, including a murder case.
In April, Tymoshenko went on a hunger strike in jail, accusing prison guards of punching her in the stomach and twisting her limbs.
Since then, Western concern over her arrest has grown, and European leaders boycotted Euro 2012 soccer matches this summer to protest her detention.
"All this process has been prearranged and prewritten by the regime," said Tymoshenko's daughter, Eugenia, who attended Tuesday's hearing.
On Wednesday, Ukraine's highest court is scheduled to rule on her detention; previous rulings have consistently upheld the government, and Eugenia Tymoshenko said she held out little hope that the next decision would be different.
The government's lawyer, Nazar Kulchitsky, denied Yulia Tymoshenko had been mistreated in prison, saying an inquiry determined that the prominent bruises were either self-inflicted or simply the manifestation of an earlier illness. When pressed by a judge, he could not explain how Tymoshenko could have bruised herself. Kulchitsky said Tymoshenko repeatedly refused medical treatment while in detention.
He acknowledged that she had been under video surveillance in violation of her privacy, but said there were no recordings of her. He offered little explanation for why Tymoshenko's cellmate was taken away just before the time when the former prime minister said she was attacked by the guards, except to say that she was supposed to undergo a medical check.
After the hearing, Kulchitsky questioned the former prime minister's allegations that the case against her was political.
"The fact that Tymoshenko was a political figure is not enough to say that she was a victim of political repression," he said.
He also denied that Tymoshenko was arrested because she acted disrespectfully to the court: "The only grounds for her arrest was that she was trying to hide the truth."
Tymoshenko's lawyer, Sergei Vlasenko, said the case against the former prime minister was rigged and called on the panel of judges in the European Court of Human Rights to rule for her. Ukraine, a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, could face penalties if it loses the case.
"There is no fair judiciary in Ukraine at all , and there is no fair judiciary for Mrs. Tymoshenko," he said. "She is absolutely isolated from any communication with her relatives and with the press. . She asked me to address you asking help."
Ukraine's highest court is scheduled to rule Wednesday on the gas case, and if the decision goes against Tymoshenko as her lawyers expect, she will be able to appeal again to the European court, said Roman Kuybida, an analyst with the Kiev-based Center for Political and Legal Reforms.
Tymoshenko's following remains strong in Ukraine, where demonstrations at the prison in support of her can grow to thousands of people crying "Freedom for Yulia!"
___
Associated Press writer Anna Melnichuck in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
We are a boutique PR agency that specialises in arts, music and entertainment industries. Established since 2005, our clients are top international brands looking to reach out in Asia. Be part of a great team that plans and executes winning media campaigns.
PR Executive/Consultant If you have the passion for arts/lifestyle/music, a flair for writing and a great love for the media industry, you may be who we are looking for. You need to be articulate and have the interest to find out the latest in the arts/music/lifestyle industries. You are also self-motivated, independent and have the eye for details. Most of all, you need to be people-oriented and have the interest to network with the press and clients.
Requirements - A diploma or degree in Communication Studies, Arts or Journalism - At least 2 years of relevant experience - Excellent communication and people skills - Ability to multi-task when required - Fluent in 2 languages
Job Scope - Plan and execute media campaigns or events - Work with clients to conceptualise campaigns - Develop meaningful media relationships - Pitching for media stories - Develop media kit content
Please submit your cv and a recent photograph of yourself by email to info@flamecomms.com
Posted on August 26th, 2012 by michele
Filed under: Jobs
We?re busier than ever?with longer workdays, less leisure time, shorter lunch hours, longer commutes, and more demands than ever before. We may even be in a job that doesn?t fulfill us, yet we spend most of our time there. When the day ends, we have almost no energy left to do what we enjoy. How to find a healthy balance?
Plenty has been written about the therapeutic benefits of exercise. So, why aren?t more people reaping those benefits and moving toward health and well-being? We need to reexamine our notion of what exercise and movement are and consider what we?re moving toward or away from. Then we can begin to ask ourselves other questions: Not just are we fit, but are we physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy? Are we happy? Do we enjoy how we?re moving through life? How can we integrate more healing movement into our days?
Exercise as ?Medicine?
We sometimes see more barriers than options to exercise. But what if we reoriented our point of view to notice where the opportunities lie? We can begin by simply redefining exercise (with its sometimes negative connotation of obligation) to movement. Already opportunities arise: How do we want to move in our bodies and in our lives? How can we have fun doing that? How can we move more (or maybe less, if we need to slow down)? How does it feel to be still? How can we make time to move into pleasure, to move with pleasure? Already, the notion of movement takes on a more healing expression. Rather than simply being another item on our to do list, it becomes a way for us to examine our lives, to see where we can move toward health, and use physical activity as a way to support this.
?When most people think of medicine, they visualize something material like a pill to be popped, a liquid to be swallowed, or an injection to be endured,? writes Carol Krucoff, author of ?Healing Moves: How to Cure, Relieve, and Prevent Common Ailments with Exercise? (Harmony Books, 2000). ?Some might also consider surgery, tests, or procedures ? [But] simple physical activity can have profound healing effects.?
Krucoff, who cowrote the book with her husband, Mitchell, a Duke University cardiologist, advocates movement as preventive medicine, saying it?s an ideal way to combat the increasing number of inactivity-related health conditions such as heart disease and obesity. This could actually be expanded to include stress-related conditions. In fact, it?s often this combination of inactivity and increased stress that wreaks havoc on our immune system, endocrine system, and circulatory system. Every system in our body, in fact, responds to stress and inactivity. But, if this is true, then the inverse is also true: every system in our bodies will also respond to movement and pleasure. To make movement pleasurable and to use it as a way to reconnect with our bodies is, in many ways, the perfect antidote to the cycle of inactivity/hyperactivity and stress. As we move more in this way, we gain energy and health, we feel rejuvenated and relaxed, and we become more physically and emotionally aware.
Emotional Fitness
We often focus on physical fitness, but any movement toward health must also include emotional and spiritual fitness. Psychologist Nancy Mramor, PhD, author of ?Spiritual Fitness? (Llewellyn Publications, 2004), ties emotional fitness with our physical health and with our heart?s expression. ?There is evidence that the largest number of heart attacks occurs on Monday morning between 8 and 9 a.m.,? she says. ?This occurrence is related to the experience called joyless striving. It applies to feelings of having to force yourself to go to a job that you have no interest in, or even truly dislike. Clearly these feelings suggest a lack of emotional fitness in the match between the employee and the job.? When we?re emotionally connected to our work in a healthy way and to one another, we not only survive, we thrive.
Interpersonal relationships, in fact, are one of the three major causes of life stress, along with environmental events/conditions and personal attitudes and beliefs. In his book, ?Love and Survival? (Harper Collins, 1998), renowned physician Dean Ornish, who first proved that heart disease was reversible through lifestyle changes, says that in order to survive, we need not only care for our lives, but the lives of others. Individuals with supportive relationships get sick less, heal faster, and live longer. Our health and well-being are not about being hyper-active or inactive. They?re about finding a balance, making our actions conscious, and learning to move in ways that are both healthy and appropriate in our own lives, then moving this healing energy out toward others. So, rather than exhausting or limiting our energy, we learn to expand it. Then we can begin exercising in a whole new way?exercising our right to choose and to better understand our body, our life, and what we want to be doing with it. Begin by checking in with yourself as you?re moving through your day: How does your body feel right now? How are you breathing? Where is this movement taking you? Do you feel good? Are you satisfied? Are you happy? If not, then change something. Change how you?re moving, where you?re moving toward, or look at what you?re moving away from.? Become the change you seek in the world,? Mahatma Ghandi said. This isn?t about a temporary quick fix to end a bad habit, lose some weight, or fill our time. This is about long-term change?making more conscious use of our time and of our life. It?s about moving though life in healthy and healing ways, and expanding our idea of who we can be. Then our view of the world widens, our heart grows, our spirit soars, and our body moves toward true change. This is the healing power of movement.
As a current website owner, you know that better rankings in the SERPS translates to online success. This article will give you some solid advice that will have you charging up the search engine rankings in no time.
For starters, make sure you understand how SEO works, and the advantages that it offers. If the world was perfect, the decision about where sites would rank on search engines would be made by people. However, since there are millions of websites, computers have to take on the job using equations and algorithms to rank the websites. SEO is a way to use these formulas to boost your website.
How the search engine assesses and ranks your website on the results page is based on many factors. Search engines look at everything from your headings, content and keywords to the volume and traffic your site brings in.
Improving your search engine position takes a lot of time and effort. Your site needs to be user-friendly, and it needs to look attractive to the people visiting it. Start by researching keywords used by your target audience and use them in your content. The relevance of your site is directly related to these keywords, and search engines rely on them to rank your site.
It is sad to know that you cannot pay in order to get a good ranking in a particular search engine. But, sponsored and featured sites are great spaces to put your links. Only more successful websites can afford to utilize this advertising method.
Obtaining incoming links from similar sites will add another level to your site promotion. Make sure to have a presence in other areas on the Internet that link back to your website. Work with other sites and do not turn down opportunities with reliable businesses. This will help you become successful at attracting new customers to your website.
You should think about how your customers are going to find your website. There will be some accidental visitors to your website, but the ones you need to be concerned about are those who are looking for your services. Find related sites that are key to advertise on, and use search keywords to bring customers to your website.
A great website will be critical to your business. If your business enterprise relies on sales via the internet, then the appearance of your website becomes even more important. If you follow these tips it will help your optimize your website.
In this sequence of images taken from a surveillance video camera and released by the New York City Police Department, police officers approach Jeffrey Johnson, after he shot his former colleague Steven Ercolino, near the Empire State Building in New York, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. Johnson, upper left in frames, was shot and killed by police as bystanders fled. (AP Photo/New York City Police Department)
In this sequence of images taken from a surveillance video camera and released by the New York City Police Department, police officers approach Jeffrey Johnson, after he shot his former colleague Steven Ercolino, near the Empire State Building in New York, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. Johnson, upper left in frames, was shot and killed by police as bystanders fled. (AP Photo/New York City Police Department)
This photo posted to an Instagram account belonging to a person identified as mr_mookie, an eyewitness at the scene, shows a victim of a shooting being tended to by pedestrians outside the Empire State Building in New York, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. The identity or condition of the victim was not immediately known. Law enforcement officials in New York City say at least four people have been shot outside the Empire State Building in violence that stemmed from a workplace dispute, and that the gunman has been killed by police. The shooting happened at about 9 a.m. Friday at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. (AP Photo/mr_mookie via Instagram)
An unidentified woman is treated by emergency medical technicians inside an ambulance following a multiple shooting outside the Empire State Building, Friday, Aug. 24, 2012, in New York. At least four people were shot on Friday morning and the gunman was dead, New York City officials said. A witness said the gunman was firing indiscriminately. Police said as many as 10 people were injured, but it is unclear how many were hit by bullets. A law enforcement official said the shooting was related to a workplace dispute. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The veteran patrolmen who opened fire on a gunman outside the Empire State Building had only an instant to react when he whirled around and pointed a .45-caliber pistol at them as they approached him from behind on a busy sidewalk.
Officer Craig Matthews shot seven times, and Officer Robert Sinishtaj fired nine times, police say. Neither had ever fired their weapons before on a patrol.
The volley of gunfire felled Jeffrey Johnson in just a few seconds and left nine other people bleeding on the sidewalk.
In the initial chaos Friday, it wasn't clear whether Johnson or the officers were responsible for the trail of the wounded. But based on ballistic and other evidence, "it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Saturday at a community event in Harlem.
Police officials have said the officers appeared to have no choice but to shoot Johnson, whose body had 10 bullet wounds in the chest, arms and legs.
Police determined that three people were struck by whole bullets ? two of which were removed from victims at the hospital ? and the rest were grazed "by fragments of some sort," Kelly said.
Two women with leg wounds and a man with a wound to his buttocks required surgery and remained hospitalized Saturday. They were listed in stable condition.
Both Matthews, 39, and Sinishtaj, 40, joined the nation's largest police department 15 years ago. The union representing the two officers didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The officers confronted Johnson as he walked down the street after gunning down a former co-worker on the sidewalk outside the office they once shared. The shooting happened as the neighborhood bustled with people arriving for work.
The gunman and his victim, Steve Ercolino, had a history of workplace squabbles before Johnson was laid off from their company, Hazan Import Corp., a year ago. At one point, the two men had grappled physically in an elevator.
A security videotape from the scene Friday shows several civilians ? including three sitting on a bench only a few feet away ? scattering as the officers opened fire.
___
Contributing to this report from New York were David B. Caruso, Colleen Long and the AP News Research Center.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) ? Tuesday's brunch with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and House Speaker John Boehner has been moved indoors. Schedules were rearranged to fill an open Monday evening. Sandbags were in place outside the hotel housing the 800-strong California delegation.
The threat of Tropical Storm Isaac left delegates to the Republican National Convention recalibrating Sunday but insistent that the show will go on with just a few modifications due to the weather. The GOP postponed most of Monday's lineup, cramming four days of events into three with hopes for a major send-off for Mitt Romney on Thursday.
"I think frankly Thursday night is going to be the big show ... and nobody can articulate Romney's message better than Romney," said Jim Poolman, vice chairman of the North Dakota GOP. "Wednesday will be important for Paul Ryan to introduce himself to (the country). And those two nights won't change."
Poolman arrived in the Tampa area Sunday afternoon and was settling in. He said if Monday's opening forum is abbreviated, he will likely stick around his Treasure Island hotel to get some work done.
A revised convention schedule shows a brief Monday session that Romney's chief convention planner said would last no more than five minutes.
Mitch Zak, media director of California's delegation, said a lot of events were being reorganized because of the storm.
One that went off as planned was Sunday night's kickoff party. Delegates flowed into Tropicana Field, taking advantage of the welcome event organized by the convention host committee.
The home of the Tampa Bay Rays was transformed from baseball field into a party zone featuring three separate stages that showcased acts such as country music star Rodney Atkins, belly dancers and cheerleaders. Delegates got to drink as well as take in Cuban food and local seafood.
Organizers said that roughly 20,000 people had been invited, but they were not certain how much the potential threat of Tropical Storm Isaac would discourage people from attending. Ken Jones, president and CEO of the 2012 Republican National Committee host convention, defended going ahead with the event despite the storm threat.
"It's really less about the partying atmosphere and really more about promoting Tampa Bay," Jones said. "We are on a world stage right now. We are going to showcase our city to the world."
A Monday breakfast with speakers such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman was moved to a new room inside the TradeWinds hotel on the water near Tampa. The brunch with Rice, Boehner and California Rep. Darrell Issa, was planned for an outside venue, but will now be held within the hotel.
"They're putting some sandbags up outside and we'll just have to wait and see, and hope Isaac is kind," Zak said, noting that 90 percent of his delegation has arrived.
"The staff and the organizers are focusing on the logistics," Zak said. "Everyone has arrived with a sense of energy. So we're all rolling with this."
The latest weather reports showed Isaac heading farther west of Tampa, but hurricane warnings were issued from the New Orleans area to the Florida Panhandle.
Zak saw no effect on the mood of the convention, or Romney's ability to get his message out.
"We're ready to blow the roofs off on Tuesday night," he said. "We're going to give him one hell of a send-off."
The inclement weather, if anything, will "demonstrate that the Republican Party is resilient and committed to America," Zak added.
Tom Del Beccaro, chairman of the California GOP, said the delay "will only result in some pent-up energy but otherwise won't affect us that much."
At least one delegate was concerned about the fast-changing schedule.
Shane Goettle, a North Dakota delegate who lost a GOP congressional primary earlier this year, said he was worried that some Republican Senate candidates would be bumped from the schedule, including his state's nominee, Rep. Rick Berg.
Indeed, the revised schedule released Sunday showed Berg was not among those who kept their speaking slots.
"As a delegate from North Dakota, I'd very much like to see him up there," Goettle said.
Goettle planned to attend a business meeting that has been moved to Tuesday. For the down times in between, he said, "it's an opportunity for our delegation to bond."
Michele M. Mustello and her sister, Marci, drove 18 to 20 hours from Butler, Pa., to Tampa and arrived Sunday.
Mustello said she'd play Monday by ear, depending on how the convention agenda has changed. But for now, none of the luncheons or mixers she planned to attend had been canceled.
___
Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell, Alan Fram, Bradley Klapper, Michele Salcedo and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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CHESTERFIELD, Mo. (AP) ? Bolstered by thousands of small individual donations, embattled Republican Congressman Todd Akin reaffirmed his commitment to his U.S. Senate campaign Friday while re-emerging publicly in Missouri for the time since making inflammatory remarks about rape and pregnancy.
Akin held a brief, tightly controlled news conference in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield after returning from Florida where he had been meeting with leading conservatives as he seeks to revive his campaign against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. His staff limited reporters to five questions and, as he has done repeatedly in recent days, Akin again rejected calls from top Republicans to drop out of the race.
"Apparently there are some people who are having trouble understanding our message, and I'd like to be clear on that today," Akin said. "We're going to be here through the November election, and we're going to be here to win."
After winning the GOP primary in August, Akin had gained quick backing from national Republican and conservative groups focused on ousting McCaskill. But that support withered after Akin was asked in an interview that aired Sunday on a St. Louis television station whether his general opposition to abortion extended to women who have been raped.
"From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," Akin said of a woman becoming pregnant from rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
Akin did not specifically address those remarks in Friday's news conference, nor was he asked about them. Instead, he sought to shift the attention back to his campaign against McCaskill, saying he stood for more freedom, more jobs and less bureaucracy than the incumbent Democrat. Staff members said Akin would resume normal campaigning next week, though they did not give specifics.
During the past week, Akin has apologized repeatedly on national radio and TV shows while acknowledging his original remarks were wrong. He's also run a 30-second apology ad on TV stations across the state.
But he remained largely out of sight in Missouri until Friday. He went to Ohio to film his apology ad at the office of his media strategist. Then he went to Florida, where he met with fellow conservatives who had gathered before the Republican National Convention.
Missouri State University communication professor Elizabeth Dudash said Akin could re-start his campaign by appearing before relatively friendly audiences.
"If he just hides in the bunker," she said, "there's no way you're going to win."
The chairman of the Republican National Committee had urged Akin to quit the Senate race, as did presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, his vice presidential pick Paul Ryan and every living Republican who has represented Missouri in the Senate. Akin also has lost the financial support for the political arm of Senate Republicans and of some powerful interest groups, such as the Crossroads organization that is affiliated with Republican strategist Karl Rove.
"I may not be the favorite candidate of some people within the Republican establishment," Akin said during the news conference. "But the voters made a decision and this is an election, it's not a selection."
Akin also sent out a new fundraising plea Friday with a goal of increasing online contributions to $212,000 by the end of the day. It referenced his continued backing from former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the most prominent public figure to stand by Akin's side.
"Your recent support gave me the courage I needed to fight on, thank you for standing with me, and supporting my campaign to defeat Claire McCaskill," Akin said in the fundraising message.
___
Associated Press writers Lieb and Chris Blank contributed to this report from Jefferson City, Mo.
Hairless cats and dogs seem ideal: no shedding, no fleas, low maintenance, no allergies, right? Not exactly.
It turns out that some hairless pets, like the Sphynx cat, are actually higher-maintenance than their furry counterparts.
?Because of their lack of absorbent coat,? says The International Cat Association (TICA), ?Sphynx tend to get oily and need to be bathed often.? (Not sure how to bathe a cat? Check out our expert tips.)
Likewise, the Peterbald cat, and in particular the ?Ultra Bald? Peterbald, needs regular bathing, and in some cases daily cleaning to prevent dirt and oil from building up and clogging ?pores. TICA also notes that hairless cats? skin will sunburn, just like human skin.
Some breeds of hairless dogs are also more prone to skin problems.
?The Chinese Crested is prone to more frequent skin irritations, allergies and sunburn than a coated dog would experience,? says the American Kennel Club, ?and its owner should always take precautions to prevent this.?
Hairless pets aren?t necessarily hypo-allergenic, either, says allergy-free, either, says says?Dr. Patrick Hensel, DVM, DACVD, associate professor of veterinary dermatology at the?University of Georgia.
?There?s a question whether it?s the actual hair people are allergic to or the skin scales that are shed,? Dr. Hensel told?Vet Street.??We?re not 100 percent sure.?
Beyond the care requirements and allergy issues, there?s also the issue of whether you truly want a hairless pet. Snuggling and petting will obviously feel different. The Ultra Bald Peterbald, by the way, prefers massage to stroking, probably because its skin is actually sticky.
And then there?s the real question: are these animals adorably elf-like, or hideously rat-like? I seem to be wavering between the two.
Hairless cats may tend to feel the cold, but they probably don't really need a sweater. Sphynx are intelligent cats and will find a warm place to sit--most likely under the covers with you or on your lap.
The Donskoy breed is a hairless Russian breed, not related to the more common Sphynx. While the Sphynx's hairlessness is a recessive gene, it's a dominant trait in the Donskoy. This Donskoy kitten seems satisfied.
Peterbald cats were originally bred by mating Donskoy cats with Oriental cats, resulting in the more almond-shaped eyes. Most Peterbalds have a very fine, short, velour-like fur, but the Ultra Bald, like the cat shown here, "is born completely hairless, with soft skin that's sticky to the touch" says Vetstreet.
A 9-month-old Chinese Crested dog shows off the crest (on the head), the plume (the tail), and the socks (feet) that are the hallmarks of the breed, according to the American Kennel Club.
The Peruvian Inca Orchid comes in both hairless and stiff-coated, and comes in three sizes. The hairless ones, also called "Peruvian Hairless Dogs," look like sculptures.
The Xoloitzcuintli (pronounced show-low-eats-queen-tlee), or "Xolo," is an ancient, natural breed from Mexico. Like the Peruvian Hairless, it comes in three sizes ? toy, miniature and standard, and two varieties ? hairless and coated.
The Xolo is one of the world?s oldest and rarest breeds, says the AKC, calling the breed "the first dog of the Americas. Archaeologists have found evidence that Xolos accompanied man on his first migrations across the Bering Straits.
Both the Peruvian Hairless and the Mexican Hairless (like the Xolo puppy here) are from warmer environments, and will need protection from cold. Neither is suitable as an "outdoor dog."
What do you think? Adorably elf-like? Or hideously rat-like? Or possibly both? Let me know in the comments!
Read more from Joslyn at?Strollerderby?and at her blog,?stark. raving. mad. mommy. You can also follow her on?Facebook?and?Twitter.
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The last of the summer corn is hitting markets everywhere, and if you want a fast and safe way to get the corn off of the cob for salads, soups, or sautees, this method from the folks at Saveur uses a bundt pan to make the process a snap. 
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Public release date: 30-Aug-2012
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