>>leader of the pope. f ann is with us for that. good morning.
>>good morning. they come from all over the world. 115 cardinals from 38 nations. once that conclave starts they are shut off from the
outside world
until they choose a new pope. they take an oath of secrecy sequestered
behind the walls
of
vatican city
and don't emerge until there is a new pope. all cardinals stay in a residence called st. martha's house. george, take me inside the conclave. you're dealing with 118 princes of the church and that has to produce an interesting scenario.
>>most haven't lived in a dormitory a long time. remember in '78, one cardinal was fretting whether there would be a place to plug in his electric razor and somebody else worried about whether he could bring
chocolate bars
into the conclave.
>>the cardinals will be entirely disconnected from the
rest of the world
, no tv or phones or internet, no exceptions. a bus with blacked out windows takes the cardinals to the chapel on their daily vote. on the first day they may vote once in the afternoon. after that, two votes in the morning and two in the afternoon. all paper ballots, handwritten after each cardinal and burned after each vote. campaigning for the job is considered bad form. if the cardinal wants the job, there are subtle maneuvers.
>>a cardinal may come up and see a fellow cardinal and take his arm and lead him to have a coffee together and a five minute conversation can perhaps change the balance in a conclave.
>>pope benedict
was stunned when he was elected after three votes.
>>i remember the senior cardinal going up,
cardinal ratzinger
and said, your eminence, will you accept to be the
supreme pontiff
of the
catholic church
. we all waited. he said, no, i can't. he said, i accept as the will of god.
>> reporter: white smoke from the chimney and peeling bells, signaling the next chapter in the
history of the catholic church
. now, to get the smoke right and get the smoke black, they add chemicals. in
2005
, when
cardinal ratzinger
was selected as pope and the smoke went up, we really couldn't tell. it was kind of gray and it wasn't until the bell started peeling, that's the other signal, there was a new pope. we're hoping this time they make it much clearer.
>>thank goodness for the bells, a fail safe measure and cannon rule 36 says no tweeting?
>>exactly. no tweeting and no facebook.
>>no instagram either.
anne thompson
, thank you, fascinating story. we
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The scientists call it a "brain link," and it is the closest anyone has gotten to a real-life "mind meld": the thoughts of a rat romping around a lab in Brazil were captured by electronic sensors and sent via Internet to the brain of a rat in the United States.
The result: the second rat received the thoughts of the first, mimicking its behavior, researchers reported on Thursday in Scientific Reports, a journal of the Nature Publishing Group.
Adding to its science-fiction feel, the advance in direct brain-to-brain communication could lay the foundation for what Duke University Medical Center neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis, who led the research, calls an "organic computer" in which multiple brains are linked to solve problems solo brains can't.
If that sounds like an ethical minefield, several experts think so too, especially since Nicolelis is now working on brain-to-brain communication between monkeys.
"Having non-human primates communicate brain-to-brain raises all sorts of ethical concerns," said one neuroscientist, who studies how brains handle motor and sensory information, but who asked not to be named. "Reading about putting things in animals' brains and changing what they do, people rightly get nervous," envisioning battalions of animal soldiers - or even human soldiers - whose brains are remotely controlled by others.
That could make drone warfare seem as advanced as muskets.
Nicolelis's lab received $26 million from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for work on brain-machine interfaces, as this field is called.
The linked rat brains in the study built on 15 years of research in brain-machine interfaces. These interfaces take electrical signals generated from the brains of severely-paralyzed people and translate them into commands that move a mechanical arm, a computer cursor or even the patient's own arm.
Such work led Nicolelis to ask, can one brain decode the electrical signals generated by another?
The answer - at least for rats - was yes.
CODED SIGNALS
In one experiment, the Duke researchers trained rats destined to be message senders, or encoders, to press a lever when a red light above them turned on. Doing so earned the animals a sip of water. Rats intended to be message receivers, or decoders, were trained to press a lever when the scientists electrically stimulated their brains via implants.
The scientists next connected the rats' brains directly, inserting microelectrodes roughly one-hundredth the width of a human hair. Now when an encoding rat saw the red light and pressed the lever, its brain activity sped directly into the brains of seven decoder rats.
The decoders did not see a red light. Nevertheless, they usually pressed the correct lever and earned their after-work libation. The encoder rats got the same treat, reaping the rewards of their partners' success.
The encoder rat did not get that reward if a decoder rat goofed. In that case, the encoder rat, apparently realizing what had happened, seemed to concentrate harder on its task: it decided more quickly to choose the correct lever and quashed extraneous thoughts so as not to muddy the signal with, perhaps, daydreams about escaping the lab or pressing the wrong lever.
As a result, the signal got louder and sharper, and the decoder rats made fewer mistakes.
"The encoder basically changed its brain function to make the signal cleaner and easier for its partner to get it right," Nicolelis said.
Videos of the experiments are available at www.nicolelislab.net, and the paper is at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep01319
The researchers also trained pairs of rats to distinguish a narrow opening from a wide one using their whiskers. The animals learned to poke a water port on the left side of the chamber with their nose if they sensed a narrow opening, and a port on the right if they sensed a wide opening.
As with the lever press, when the brain waves that signified "narrow door" traveled from the encoder rat to the decoder rat, the latter usually poked the correct port.
In these experiments, the rats were in Nicolelis's lab at Duke and their brains were connected by long, thin wires. To show the reach of brain waves, the scientists re-ran the experiments with encoder rats in Natal, Brazil, and decoder rats at Duke. The brain signals traveled over the Internet. But even with the resulting noise, the mind melds usually succeeded.
'COMPLETE FANTASY'
Some other researchers were not impressed. For one thing, the Internet aspect is not novel: in a previous study, electrical activity in the brain of a monkey at Duke was sent via the Internet and controlled a robot arm in Japan.
Neurobiologist Andrew Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh, a leader in the field of brain-computer interactions, said that "from a scientific/engineering point of view, this is of limited interest." Brain-machine interfaces "have moved far beyond this."
"It's cool that the stimulus came from another brain" rather than an electrical device, agreed bioengineer Douglas Weber of Pittsburgh. But "many labs have shown that animals can detect electrical stimuli delivered to the brain. This paper simply shows that the animals can detect electrical stimuli... from another rat's brain. There is nothing unexpected or surprising."
The Duke team sees the study as a step toward what lead author Miguel Pais-Vieira calls "a workable network of animal brains." They are currently trying to link four rats' brains and (separately) two monkeys' brains, each in what Nicolelis calls a "brain-net."
"Wiring brains together to accomplish something useful strikes me as a fantasy," said neuroscientist Lee Miller of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, whose brain-machine research is intended to help paralyzed patients move.
Asked how likely it is that one day human brains would be linked, Nicolelis said: "I wouldn't mind if, 100 years from now, people say two rats started human brain nets."
(Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Claudia Parsons)
NBC's Savannah Guthrie and Keir Simmons report from Vatican City where Pope Benedict XVI holds a special event with the cardinals to bid farewell.
By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News
In a quiet departure characteristic of his shy demeanor, Pope Benedict XVI began a muted goodbye to his cardinals and closest advisers at the Vatican on Thursday ? the final day of his papacy.
"I will continue to be close to you," he told them in the Vatican's 16th century Sala Clementina, before exchanging private individual greetings.?
"The future pope is among you," the pontiff added, pledging his "unconditional reverence and obedience" to who whoever is chosen as his successor.
He also expressed his desire for the church to work like an orchestra where diverse elements came together in harmony - yet another reference to his frustration over infighting at the top of the church.
NBC News Special Report: Pope Benedict XVI exchanges a few words with the College of Cardinals in the Sala Clementina before he official steps down as leader of the Catholic Church. NBC's Savannah Guthrie and Keir Simmons report from Vatican City.
He was expected to bid an individual farewell to dozens of members of the papal hierarchy, the curia, during the day before flying by helicopter to his temporary residence at Castel Gandolfo.
Eleven cardinals from the United States were due to be among those bidding him farewell on his final day as pontiff.
When the doors of Castel Gandolfo close at 8 p.m. local time Friday (2 p.m. ET) ? the moment Benedict's papacy ends ? the distinctive Swiss Guards in attendance will go off-duty.
The pontiff, who will be known that moment as pope emeritus, will remain at the papal summer residence for two months until his permanent home in a monastery within the Vatican is refurbished and ready for his arrival.
'A caring pastor' NBC News Vatican expert George Weigel said Pope Benedict would be remembered as ?the greatest papal preacher since Gregory the Great in the 6th century? and ?a caring pastor.?
Father John Bartunek, a priest and author who works in Rome, added: ?One of the characteristics that has struck us is personal humility and sincerity. He has a certain sweetness and openness and he?s always present, always willing to listen and that will also be part of his legacy.?
?A lot of the repercussions of his decisions won?t be seen right away,? he said.
Thursday's goodbyes were in stark contrast to?Wednesday's public event, where a crowd of more than 100,000?cheered, applauded and waved banners of support as he delivered his final audience at a packed St Peter's Square.
He assured pilgrims and well-wishers that he was not "coming down from the cross" despite renouncing his office, saying his decision was taken "in full awareness of its gravity and rarity but also with profound serenity of spirit."
Aides say a life of quiet reflection beckons for Pope Benedict.
Religions News Service has put together the first-round voting brackets on the favorites for the next Pope, including the odds. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
?I think we?ll probably catch some glimpses of him walking in the garden,? Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told NBC?s TODAY. ?He?s not the kind of guy who is going on a book tour.?
An introverted theologian, he is credited with pushing the "new evangelization" and repairing rifts with Jews but faulted for not taking stronger action as a sex-abuse scandal tarnished the church's reputation and letting the Vatican bureaucracy run amok.
Vatican watchers say there is no clear front-runner and Benedict's legacy will loom large as they look to the future.
A Vatican spokesman told the Catholic News Service the college will probably not meet over the weekend but could gather the following Monday for informal talks to set a date for the conclave and begin talking about priorities for 266th pope.
Under old church law, the conclave couldn?t start until March 15, but an amendment this week will allow the cardinals to push up the date as along as all 115 electors are in place. There were supposed to be 117, but one is too sick to attend and another recused himself after being accused of inappropriate behavior with priests.
And, of the ?Vatican guesthouse where the cardinals will stay during the conclave must be swept for listening devices before they can move in.
The length of the conclave ? with its four secret ballots a day, cast in the Sistine Chapel ? is anyone's guess; it took just two days to elect Benedict and three to choose his predecessor, John Paul II.
Leading historian Michael Walsh discusses the impact of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, his legacy and whether there's a chance that the next pontiff will be a non-European.
An introverted theologian, he is credited with pushing the "new evangelization" and repairing rifts with Jews but faulted for not taking stronger action as a sex-abuse scandal tarnished the church's reputation and letting the Vatican bureaucracy run amok.
He alluded to the crises during Wednesday's address, saying he had often felt like "St. Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of ??Galilee."
?The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant," he said. "[But] there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the Church it has ever been ? and the Lord seemed to sleep."
NBC News' Tracy Connor contributed to this report.
Gabriel Bouys / AFP - Getty Images
The pope delivers his final audience in St. Peter's Square as he prepares to stand down.
Related:
Pope to wear white, but no red shoes after abdication
'Amateur hour': Vatican conclave drama is one for the history books, experts say
Inside the Vatican: The $8 billion global institution where nuns answer the phones
This story was originally published on Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:57 AM EST
This photo released by the Connecticut State Police during an Amber Alert Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, shows Alton Dennison, 6, left, and Ashton Denison, 2 months old, right, who were taken from their daycare by their grandmother Tuesday afternoon. State police said the bodies of Ashton and Alton Perry and their grandmother, Debra Denison, 47, were found dead Tuesday night in Preston, Conn. Connecticut state police are calling the shooting deaths a double murder-suicide and say she had permission to pick them up from their daycare. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police)
This photo released by the Connecticut State Police during an Amber Alert Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, shows Alton Dennison, 6, left, and Ashton Denison, 2 months old, right, who were taken from their daycare by their grandmother Tuesday afternoon. State police said the bodies of Ashton and Alton Perry and their grandmother, Debra Denison, 47, were found dead Tuesday night in Preston, Conn. Connecticut state police are calling the shooting deaths a double murder-suicide and say she had permission to pick them up from their daycare. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police)
This photo [provided by the Connecticut State Police during an Amber Alert Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, shows Debra Denison, 47, who was being sought after taking grandsons Alton and Ashton Denison from their daycare Tuesday afternoon. State police said the bodies of all three were found Tuesday night in Preston, Conn. Connecticut state police are calling the shooting deaths a double murder-suicide and say Denison had permission to pick them up from their daycare. (AP Photo/Connecticut State Police)
This Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 photo shows the state boat launch at the end of Lake of Isles Road in Preston, Conn. State police said the bodies of 6-month-old Ashton and 2-year-old Alton Perry and their grandmother, Debra Denison, 47, were found Tuesday night in Denison's van at the boat launch. State police called the deaths a double murder-suicide Wednesday, saying they believe Denison shot the boys and herself. (AP Photo/The Day, Sean D. Elliot) MANDATORY CREDIT: THE DAY/SEAN D. ELLIOT
NORTH STONINGTON, Conn. (AP) ? Debra Denison's struggles with mental illness were well known in her family, and when she wanted to pick up her grandsons from day care to mark the older boy's birthday, mother Brenda Perry hesitated.
Denison not only wanted to pick up 2-year-old Alton and 6-month-old Ashton, but she also wanted to do it alone, the boys' great-grandmother said. Perry told her mother the boys were too much for her to handle, but Denison insisted.
"She was apparently very convincing," said Marcia White, the boys' great-grandmother on their father's side. So Perry asked her to take along another relative. She didn't ? and now a family and a town are wondering whether anything could have prevented what came next.
Denison left a suicide note, drove alone to the day care, picked up the boys, took them to a nearby lake and apparently used her husband's gun to fatally shoot them and herself, authorities and relatives said Wednesday. The bodies were found Tuesday night, about two hours after a frantic search began.
State police had not officially determined they all died because of the gunfire, but autopsies were planned.
Denison, 47, also had a 13-year-old son who was not with her Tuesday afternoon and was unharmed. In her suicide note, she said in part that God was watching over him on Tuesday, White said. What exactly she meant by that, and her motive for the killings and suicide, remain unclear.
But state property tax records revealed financial difficulties, including a lien put on their home last month. And the boys' parents told WVIT-TV that Denison had "split personalities," while WFSB-TV reported that family members described her as having bipolar disorder.
"She would go along and have seasons where everything was A OK, and other times when she would be depressed, running to the doctor and getting prescriptions," said White, the grandmother of the boys' father, Jeremy Perry.
The parents are reeling with grief, she said, on what should have been a happy day of looking over snapshots of their older son's birthday.
"They have a strong faith in God, and they're just clinging to each other and God," she said.
Nothing seemed amiss when Denison collected the boys from Kidds & Co., where she had been before and was on a list of people authorized to pick up the children. Their mother had told staff members the grandmother would be picking up the children, and Denison was friendly and talkative when she arrived, according to director Nikki Salaun.
The staff described the boys as very happy children. Alton had been sent to the day care Tuesday with mini-cupcakes to share in honor of his birthday; he was nicknamed "the greeter" at the center because he always went to see visitors at the door, while other children hung back.
In a Facebook posting Monday, the mother had written: "So excited making mini cupcakes and play dough for Altons day tomorrow can't believe 2 years old already. So blessed".
Salaun and center co-owner Christine Hare said that they keep going over the pickup in their minds, but that there is nothing they could have done differently.
"Brenda obviously put her on the list thinking she would be OK," Hare said. "We go with the parents. We can't override their wishes. Obviously, if she had come here obviously distraught, we would have intervened."
After helping Denison to her van with the children, they discovered she had taken the wrong car seat. When they could not reach her by phone, they alerted the boys' mother, who contacted police. The bodies were found around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, about two hours after state police issued a statewide Amber Alert.
As state police were searching, they learned that Denison had left her home Tuesday afternoon armed with a revolver and had left a suicide note. The contents of the note weren't officially released.
The bodies of Denison and the boys were found in a car parked near Lake of Isles in Preston, in the southeastern corner of Connecticut. It's a town over from the day care center in North Stonington, a bedroom and farming community just a few miles away from one of the world's largest casinos.
In Facebook postings, Brenda Perry thanked people for their prayers and said she loved her sons. "God (has) two beautiful angels helping him now," the postings said.
A man who answered the door at the family home Wednesday declined to comment, and a man at the address listed for Denison said the family is asking for space.
Denison's criminal record appeared clean. She had two convictions for minor driving offenses, said Peggy Muckle, a clerk at New London Superior Court. She was fined $35 in 2003 for following too closely and, in 2004, she pleaded guilty to reckless driving, but a judge did not require her to pay the $100 fine.
Denison and her husband, Jance Denison, have had financial problems over the past several years, including a $5,926 state tax lien put on their home last month.
There were several other liens on the Denison home dating back to the late 1990s, mostly in Jance Denison's name, records show. They included three liens totaling more than $3,900 against Debra Denison by The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich and a $668 lien by Connecticut Behavioral Health Associates against Jance and Debra Denison.
___
Melia reported from Hartford, Conn. Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford contributed.
In this Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012, photo, people pass the New York Times building in New York. The Newspaper Association of America, the New York Times Co. and several other newspaper companies have filed papers in support of a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press against Meltwater, a company that monitors the media for corporate customers. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012, photo, people pass the New York Times building in New York. The Newspaper Association of America, the New York Times Co. and several other newspaper companies have filed papers in support of a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press against Meltwater, a company that monitors the media for corporate customers. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The Newspaper Association of America, the New York Times Co. and several other newspaper companies have filed papers in support of a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press against Meltwater, a company that monitors the media for corporate customers.
The AP sued Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc. and its Meltwater News Service in U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Manhattan last February, alleging that the company copies AP content and sells it to clients without paying AP licensing fees.
The Times and other companies, including USA Today publisher Gannett Co., Inc., The McClatchy Co. and Advance Publications, Inc., said in court papers filed late Monday that their businesses would be jeopardized if Meltwater's activities were allowed to continue. The publishers argue that their websites and other digital businesses that generate revenue through advertising, subscriptions and licensing fees are threatened if other companies can distribute their content without paying licensing fees.
"None of these revenue streams can be sustained if news organizations are unable to protect their news reports from the wholesale copying and redistribution by free-riders like Meltwater," the filing said.
Also joining in the friend-of-the-court brief was BurrellesLuce, a Meltwater competitor that says it is at a disadvantage because it pays to license content that Meltwater takes for free.
Meltwater did not immediately have a comment.
Meltwater was founded in 2001 in Oslo, Norway. According to the company's website, it has more than 800 employees working in 55 offices around the world. The company says it monitors more than 162,000 online publications for its clients. Its clipping service tracks media coverage of products and other activities. Meltwater uses the information to help clients analyze the effectiveness of marketing and public relations campaigns.
In the filing, the AP's supporters argued that Meltwater's service differs from a search engine. The distinction could be important because search engines have legal protection from paying licensing fees if they merely point users to a location where information can be found. Meltwater tailors its clipping service to specific clients and copies the headline and lead paragraph of stories, the filing said. Meltwater includes more content if the client requests it.
The AP's supporters also said Meltwater's service does not amount to "fair use" because it copies material without alteration, does not aid the public good and damages the market for copyrighted work.
Laura Malone, acting general counsel for the AP, said the news cooperative welcomed the support from the newspaper companies.
"It demonstrates that the media community stands together in recognizing that Meltwater's business of appropriating and selling media content cannot be excused as fair use and instead is infringing," she said.
Founded in 1846, The Associated Press is a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties searched for a way forward on Tuesday after an inconclusive election gave none of them a parliamentary majority and threatened prolonged instability and a renewal of the European financial crisis.
The results, notably the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower house but without the numbers to control the upper chamber, the Senate.
Financial markets fell sharply at the prospect of a stalemate that reawakened memories of the crisis that pushed Italy's borrowing costs toward unsustainably high levels and brought the euro zone to the brink of collapse in 2011.
"The winner is: Ingovernability," ran the headline in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, reflecting the deadlock the country will have to confront in the next few weeks as sworn enemies are forced to work together to form a government.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Tuesday that policy choices of the next Italian government would be crucial for the country's creditworthiness, underlining the need for a coalition that can agree on new reforms.
Pier Luigi Bersani, head of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), has the difficult task of trying to agree a "grand coalition" with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the man he blames for ruining Italy, or striking a deal with Grillo, a completely unknown quantity in conventional politics.
The alternative is new elections either immediately or within a few months, although both Berlusconi and Bersani have indicated that they want to avoid a return to the polls if possible: "Italy cannot be ungoverned and we have to reflect," Berlusconi said in an interview on his own television station.
For his part, Grillo, whose movement won the most votes of any single party, has indicated that he believes the next government will last no more than six months.
"They won't be able to govern," he told reporters on Tuesday. "Whether I'm there or not, they won't be able govern."
He said he would work with anyone who supported his policy proposals, which range from anti-corruption measures to green-tinted energy measures but rejected suggestions of entering a formal coalition: "It's not time to talk of alliances... the system has already fallen," he said.
The election, a massive rejection of the austerity policies applied by Prime Minister Mario Monti with the backing of international leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, caused consternation across Europe.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble put a brave face on it, saying "that's democracy".
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo was more pessimistic.
"This is a jump to nowhere that does not bode well either for Italy or Europe," he said.
A long recession and growing disillusionment with mainstream parties and tax-raising austerity fed a bitter public mood and contributed to the massive rejection of Monti, whose centrist coalition was relegated to the sidelines.
Projections by the Italian center for Electoral Studies showed that the center-left will have 121 seats in the Senate, against 117 for the center-right alliance of Berlusconi's PDL and the regionalist Northern League. Grillo would take 54.
That leaves no party with the majority in a chamber which a government must control to pass legislation.
"THE BELL IS RINGING"
On a visit to Germany, President Giorgio Napolitano said he would not comment until the parties had consulted with each other and Bersani called on Berlusconi and Grillo to "assume their responsibilities" to ensure Italy could have a government.
He warned that the election showed austerity policies alone were no answer to the economic crisis and said the result carried implications beyond Italy.
"The bell is ringing for Europe as well," he said in his first public comments since the election.
He said he would present a limited number of reform proposals to parliament, focusing on jobs, institutional reform and European policy.
However forming an alliance may be long and difficult and could test the sometimes fragile internal unity of the mainstream parties.
"The idea of a majority without Grillo is unthinkable. I don't know if anyone in the PD is considering it but I'm against it," said Matteo Orfini, a member of Bersani's PD secretariat.
"The idea of a PD-PDL government, even if it's backed by Monti, doesn't make any sense," he said.
For his part, Berlusconi won a boost when his Northern League ally Roberto Maroni won the election to become regional president of Lombardy, Italy's economic heartland and one of the richest and most productive areas of Europe.
For Italian business, with an illustrious history of export success, the election result brought dismay that there would be no quick change to what they see as a regulatory sclerosis that has kept the economy virtually stagnant for a decade.
"This is probably the worst possible scenario," said Francesco Divella, whose family began selling pasta under its eponymous brand in 1890 in the southern region of Puglia.
Berlusconi's campaign, mixing sweeping tax cut pledges with relentless attacks on Monti and Merkel, echoed many of the themes pushed by Grillo and underlined the increasingly angry mood of the Italian electorate.
But even if the next government turns away from the tax hikes and spending cuts brought in by Monti, it will struggle to revive an economy that has scarcely grown in two decades.
Monti was widely credited with tightening Italy's public finances and restoring its international credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, who is currently on trial for having sex with an under-age prostitute.
However, Monti struggled to pass the kind of structural reforms needed to improve competitiveness and lay the foundations for a return to economic growth. A weak center-left government may not find it any easier.
The view from some voters, weary of the mainstream parties, was unrepentant: "It's good," said Roger Manica, 28, a security guard in Rome, who voted for the center-left PD.
"Next time I'll vote 5-Star. I like that they are changing things, even if it means uncertainty. Uncertainty doesn't matter to me, for me what's important is a good person who gets things done," he said. "Look how well they've done."
(Additional reporting by Barry Moody, Gavin Jones, Lisa Jucca, Steven Jewkes, Steve Scherer, Catherine Hornby and Massimiliano Di Giorgio, Annika Breidthardt in Berlin. Writing by Philip Pullella and James Mackenzie; Editing by Peter Graff)
Who knew that the greatest love triangle of the decade would involve the mobile industry's own Bella Swan, Clearwire? The network provider has accepted an $80 million loan from nailed-on suitor and sparkly vampire, Sprint, but Clear is still pondering a buyout offer from Jacob, sorry, Dish Network. The scuttlebutt around Forks the industry is that Dish will withdraw its bid after spurned by Clearwire one too many times -- but you never can tell with true love, or multi-billion business deals.
Brain cells can live at least twice as long as the organisms in which they reside, according to new research.
The study, published today (Feb. 25) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that mouse neurons, or brain cells, implanted into rats can survive with the rats into old age, twice as long as the life span of the original mice.
The findings are good news for life extension enthusiasts.
"We are slowly but continuously prolonging the life of humans," said study co-author Dr. Lorenzo Magrassi, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pavia in Italy.
So if the human life span could be stretched to 160 years, "then you are not going to lose your neurons, because your neurons do not have a fixed lifetime."
Long-lived cells
While most of the cells in the human body are being constantly replaced, humans are born with almost all the neurons they will ever have. [10 Odd Facts About the Brain]
Magrassi and his colleagues wanted to know whether neurons could outlive the organisms in which they live (barring degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's).
To do so, the researchers took neurons from mice and implanted them into the brains of about 60 rat fetuses.
The team then let the rats live their entire lives, euthanizing them when they were moribund and unlikely to survive for more than two days, and then inspected their brains. The life span of the mice was only about 18 months, while the rats typically lived twice as long.
The rats were found to be completely normal (though not any smarter), without any signs of neurological problems at the end of their lives.
And the neurons that had been transplanted from mice were still alive when the rats died. That means it's possible the cells could have survived even longer if they were transplanted into a longer-lived species.
Life extension
The findings suggest that our brain cells won't fail before our bodies do.
"Think what a terrible thing it could be if you survive your own brain," Magrassi told LiveScience.
While the findings were done in rats, not humans, they could also have implications for neuronal transplants that could be used for degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, Magrassi said.
But just because brain cells may be able to live indefinitely doesn't mean humans could live forever.
Aging is dependent on more than the life span of all the individual parts in the body, and scientists still don't understand exactly what causes people to age, Magrassi said.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?& Google+.?
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A picture of health in schoolsPublic release date: 26-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pressoffice pressoffice@esrc.ac.uk Economic & Social Research Council
Feeling comfortable and confident in sport, health, or PE can be very difficult for some young people who can be seen as a 'risk' of becoming obese. Young people from ethnic minorities, especially girls, are more likely to be physically inactive and unhealthy.
This perception needs to be addressed and challenged in school physical education (PE) according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which shows how school provision could make use of visual approaches in developing young people's critical learning about the body.
When Dr Laura Azzarito served as Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University, she worked with 14 and 15 year olds in multi-cultural urban schools in the Midlands using digital cameras to compile 'visual diaries' of their experiences in health and physical activity.
Parts of the findings have been presented at school-based art exhibitions, community-based arts centres, and the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester. These exhibitions included students' own photographs and words that captured their ways of seeing, discussing and reflecting upon the significance of physical activity in their everyday lives.
A key theme that emerged from the research is the ways in which young people saw and talked about themselves as 'sporting bodies'. Typically, one male student selected photographs of himself in which he displayed shooting skills in basketball and ball control in football. Another student provided a technical narrative, with his pictures portraying him performing different tennis strokes as might be found in a training manual or magazine.
By contrast, the diaries of South Asian girls did not tend to include images of themselves participating in sports that were organised, competitive or required highly specialised actions. Instead, their diaries showed how, for example, they move in the world with friends and family, or bond with girlfriends through recreational sport and physical activity.
These accounts highlighted visible gender, race and social class boundaries. All of the South Asian girls saw themselves as recreational, contrary to stereotypically passive or subordinated South Asian ideas of femininity. More generally, the boys and girls taking part in the study saw themselves as 'moving bodies' given the educational and economic resources available to them, rather than the 'bodies at risk' associated with health scares.
Azzarito commented: "Despite calls for a curriculum that encourages greater physical literacy, schools don't provide educational spaces in which young people can think critically about the messages they receive concerning body, health and physical activity. School PE provision could make good use of the visual in developing young people's learning about the body and in their imagining of who they want to become. It could be used by teachers to help young people understand the role of the media on the development of their physicality."
###
For further information contact:
Dr Laura Azzarito
Email: azzarito@tc.columbia.edu
Telephone: 00 1 212 870 8601
ESRC Press Office:
Sarah Nichols
Email: sarah.nichols@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone: 01793 413122
1. This release is based on findings from 'Moving in my World: an Investigation into Young People's Embodiment and its Impact on Participation in Physical Activity', funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by Dr Laura Azzarito when she was a Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University. Currently she is an Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
2. Images are available upon request.
3. The project contributed to the 'Social Life of Methods: ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) Conference' at Oxford University through a symposium on the usefulness of visual methods in physical culture studies, the sharing of findings from the project with the academic community and staging of the exhibition.
4. Over 60 student-researchers used digital cameras and created visual diaries in a two year visual participatory ethnography conducted in multicultural, urban schools in the Midlands. Formal interviews were then conducted with each participant using a photo-feedback technique, and parts of the findings were exhibited at the researched schools, school-based art exhibitions, community-based arts centres, and a local museum. Content analysis of the photos included in each diary allowed for patterns (ie gender, social class, and race) to emerge.
5. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2012/13 is 205 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.
6. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peers review. This research has been graded as good.
[ | 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.
A picture of health in schoolsPublic release date: 26-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Pressoffice pressoffice@esrc.ac.uk Economic & Social Research Council
Feeling comfortable and confident in sport, health, or PE can be very difficult for some young people who can be seen as a 'risk' of becoming obese. Young people from ethnic minorities, especially girls, are more likely to be physically inactive and unhealthy.
This perception needs to be addressed and challenged in school physical education (PE) according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which shows how school provision could make use of visual approaches in developing young people's critical learning about the body.
When Dr Laura Azzarito served as Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University, she worked with 14 and 15 year olds in multi-cultural urban schools in the Midlands using digital cameras to compile 'visual diaries' of their experiences in health and physical activity.
Parts of the findings have been presented at school-based art exhibitions, community-based arts centres, and the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester. These exhibitions included students' own photographs and words that captured their ways of seeing, discussing and reflecting upon the significance of physical activity in their everyday lives.
A key theme that emerged from the research is the ways in which young people saw and talked about themselves as 'sporting bodies'. Typically, one male student selected photographs of himself in which he displayed shooting skills in basketball and ball control in football. Another student provided a technical narrative, with his pictures portraying him performing different tennis strokes as might be found in a training manual or magazine.
By contrast, the diaries of South Asian girls did not tend to include images of themselves participating in sports that were organised, competitive or required highly specialised actions. Instead, their diaries showed how, for example, they move in the world with friends and family, or bond with girlfriends through recreational sport and physical activity.
These accounts highlighted visible gender, race and social class boundaries. All of the South Asian girls saw themselves as recreational, contrary to stereotypically passive or subordinated South Asian ideas of femininity. More generally, the boys and girls taking part in the study saw themselves as 'moving bodies' given the educational and economic resources available to them, rather than the 'bodies at risk' associated with health scares.
Azzarito commented: "Despite calls for a curriculum that encourages greater physical literacy, schools don't provide educational spaces in which young people can think critically about the messages they receive concerning body, health and physical activity. School PE provision could make good use of the visual in developing young people's learning about the body and in their imagining of who they want to become. It could be used by teachers to help young people understand the role of the media on the development of their physicality."
###
For further information contact:
Dr Laura Azzarito
Email: azzarito@tc.columbia.edu
Telephone: 00 1 212 870 8601
ESRC Press Office:
Sarah Nichols
Email: sarah.nichols@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone: 01793 413122
1. This release is based on findings from 'Moving in my World: an Investigation into Young People's Embodiment and its Impact on Participation in Physical Activity', funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and carried out by Dr Laura Azzarito when she was a Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University. Currently she is an Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
2. Images are available upon request.
3. The project contributed to the 'Social Life of Methods: ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) Conference' at Oxford University through a symposium on the usefulness of visual methods in physical culture studies, the sharing of findings from the project with the academic community and staging of the exhibition.
4. Over 60 student-researchers used digital cameras and created visual diaries in a two year visual participatory ethnography conducted in multicultural, urban schools in the Midlands. Formal interviews were then conducted with each participant using a photo-feedback technique, and parts of the findings were exhibited at the researched schools, school-based art exhibitions, community-based arts centres, and a local museum. Content analysis of the photos included in each diary allowed for patterns (ie gender, social class, and race) to emerge.
5. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2012/13 is 205 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.
6. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peers review. This research has been graded as good.
[ | 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.
Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during the VTR Open final tennis game against Argentina's Horacio Zeballos in Vina del Mar, Chile, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. Nadal lost to Zeballos 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-4 in Sunday's final of the VTR Open, the Spaniard's comeback tournament after seven months out with a torn tendon in his left knee. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)
Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during the VTR Open final tennis game against Argentina's Horacio Zeballos in Vina del Mar, Chile, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. Nadal lost to Zeballos 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-4 in Sunday's final of the VTR Open, the Spaniard's comeback tournament after seven months out with a torn tendon in his left knee. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)
Spain's Rafael Nadal sits at the end of the VTR Open final tennis game against Argentina's Horacio Zeballos in Vina del Mar, Chile, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. Nadal lost to Zeballos 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-4 in Sunday's final of the VTR Open, the Spaniard's comeback tournament after seven months out with a torn tendon in his left knee. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)
Spain's Rafael Nadal returns the ball to Argentina's Horacio Zeballos during the final of the VTR Open in Vina del Mar, Chile, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. Nadal lost to Zeballos 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-4 in Sunday's final of the VTR Open, the Spaniard's comeback tournament after seven months out with a torn tendon in his left knee,in Vina del Mar, Chile, Sundays, Feb. 10, 2013 .(AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)
VINA DEL MAR, Chile (AP) ? After seven months away treating a left knee injury, Rafael Nadal left many questions unanswered in his comeback tournament.
Nadal lost both the singles and doubles finals in the space of a few hours Sunday at the VTR Open in Chile. And Horacio Zeballos, who earned the first title of his career by beating Nadal in three sets, repeated what Nadal has been saying.
"Not playing has hurt him," Zeballos said. "Four or five tournaments back should get him back in form. I'd say this was the perfect time to play Rafa considering the confidence factor and everything."
In the final, Zeballos served better, hit more cross-court winners from sharp angles, and was quicker on clay than the Spaniard, the seven-time French Open champion who was introduced throughout the tournament as "The King of Clay."
Nadal said the loss was a reminder of what he already knew: returning to challenge the other three in tennis' top four ? Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray ? will be slow and gritty.
"It was a week when we didn't know how the body would respond, the knee," Nadal said. "At least we have seen we can compete up to a certain level. It's true I have had good days and bad days that impact on my play. The tennis aspect isn't the most important thing. The most important was being out there again in front of fans.
"But I won't deny I wanted to win here."
Despite the positive spin, Nadal lost to a player he beat in straight sets three years ago in the French Open ? 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. Nadal has won 50 tournaments on all surfaces, and Zeballos now has won one. Nadal has $50 million in tournament earnings, while the Argentine has a mere $1.3 million.
Nadal moves this week to the Brazil Open in Sao Paulo, an event that provides another test on his road to the French Open. He competes again on clay later this month in Acapulco, Mexico.
Nadal looks slimmer than before, and his powerful forehand appeared to be recovering faster than his serve and backhand.
The torn tendon in Nadal's left knee drew repeated questions. He said it's better some days than others, and there's still pain. He's avoided surgery, and he says he's been told by doctors the soreness may linger for a few more weeks ? even a few months.
He wore a white bandage on the knee whenever he played, racing down plenty of loose balls and showing no signs of protecting the knee or, for that matter, his right knee, which has also been injured.
"Every day improves and increases the confidence for me," he said. "Every day that the knee answers well is a lot of positive energy for me, and that's helping me a lot. The feeling day by day is better ? the feeling on court. ... I still feel pain in the knee some days, and that's something we hope and think will be improving week by week."
___
Follow Stephen Wade at http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP
We've shown you the best ways to make the most money from your unwanted crap, but one gold mine that's often overlooked is the one that millions of people use every day: Facebook.
Of course, you can use Facebook to pitch your unwanted stuff to the friends and family members that you're already Facebook friends with, but that limits your audience significantly when compared to a site like Craigslist or Amazon Marketplace. Instead, look for Facebook sale groups in your area (just search for your state or region and the word "sell" or "buy" to find local buy/sell/trade groups. If there are none, you can always start one and get the word out in your community!) and join them. From there you can shop from people in your area, list your own items for sale, and set your own prices. You can even note whether you're willing to ship something, or?in the case of furniture or large electronics or appliances?whether you'd rather the buyer come pick it up.
The big benefit of using Facebook like this is that you set your price and there's no one taking a cut of your sale price or charging you to host your listing. You can set your own preferred method of payment, and you also have the opportunity to become part of a community where people are looking for bargains as much as others are looking to declutter their homes. Many of the groups are closed, so you'll have to ask permission to join, and others only accept certain types of listings, so make sure you read up on the group you want to join and their rules. Many have strict listing requirements and limits on how many items you can try to sell per day in order to stave off spammers and scam artists.
A number of you mentioned local Facebook groups when we talked about other ways to sell your stuff, and if you'd rather have a more personal approach to buying and selling?or you just want a new audience to reach out to beyond the same old Craigslist posts, they're definitely worth a try.
How to Sell Your Old Stuff on Facebook | Wise Bread
I am enjoying my cricket, says S Sreesanth ? Cricket News Update
Eager to make a comeback into the national team, out of favour Indian pacer S Sreesanth shared on Friday that he has adopted a self-centred approach towards cricket, adding that he is enjoying his game now.
While speaking to media reporters here in Mumbai, the 30-year-old Kerala pace bowler, who has been laid low by injuries and lack of form since the 2011 World Cup, said that he is now playing cricket for himself and hoped this approach will help him regain
his lost spot in the Indian team.
"I am bowling?in very good rhythm and enjoying my cricket. I am playing for myself. Previously I used to play for my parents and country. If you do well for yourself it will also help the team," the Kerala bowler said at the end of the third day of the ongoing
five-day Irani Cup match here in Mumbai.
Sreesanth picked up just one wicket in 21 overs, while conceding 80 runs, as Rest of India bowled out Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai for 409 in reply to their massive first innings tally of 526. The Kerala pacer also bowled a few testing overs to veteran
batsman Sachin Tendulkar, which the Master Blaster either ducked or tried unsuccessfully to push the ball away over the slips.
"I got him out in my mind," said Sreesanth about the 39-year-old centurion who scored an unbeaten 140 to equal Sunil Gavaskar's national record of 81 first class centuries.
India?s next assignment is a home Test series against Australia, starting later this month. Asked about the forthcoming team selection for Australia series, the 30-year-old right-arm medium pacer said that it was not in his hands.
"I look forward to being picked against Australia but it's up to the selectors. I was not even sure of being selected to play in the Irani Cup,? said Sreesanth. ?I am thankful that seven weeks after my toe surgery I am able to play here. If I am not selected
(for Australia Test series) I would go and play in the (South Zone) Subbiah Pillay (one-day) tournament (in Goa)," concluded the Indian pacer who has not played for his country since August 2011.
This is an excellent martial arts, MMA or wrestling exercise?especially useful for those who have exert explosive rotational power when lying on the ground. You?ll be using the gluteus medius and minimus muscles (the abductors of the hips), to roll from side to side while holding a dumbell at your chest.
And while this would seem to primarily hit the core hard, you will get a good hip workout out of it as well.
Start with a moderate weight dumbell. In this first demo, I?m using an 85 lb dumbell. You?ll want to start lighter than this until you get the feel for the exercise.
Roll to the side and grip the dumbell with both hands. Your arms should be bent 90 degrees and you?ll be holding the dumbell in as close to your body as possible, throughout the movement.
Your same-side leg should be bent 90 degrees as well?it?s the hip of that side that?s going to be exert force to begin the roll.
Push hard with the left hip while keeping the core tight and pulling that dumbell in tight to your chest.
Come up to the top then start the roll in the other direction.
Roll all the way over and set the dumbell on the floor (don?t let go, though). The right leg should be bent 90 degrees now.
Push with the right hip and roll back to the other side.
Repeat for 6 to 10 total reps.
Here?s a view from the other side using a 125 lb dumbell (you can progress to pretty heavy dumbells with this movement).
This exercise will really develop the muscles that are important for ground work in MMA, martial arts and wrestling?it?ll give you great rotational power on the ground and also teach how to really use those hip muscles to exert that power.
Feb. 11, 2013 ? Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer that is currently incurable in 70% of patients. In a bold effort, CSHL scientists are among those identifying and characterizing the molecular mechanisms responsible for this cancer in order to generate potential new therapeutics.
CSHL Assistant Professor Christopher Vakoc, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues, including the group of Professor Robert Roeder Ph.D. at The Rockefeller University, report the characterization of a protein required for AML in a paper published February 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Screening of DNA packaging proteins calls attention to RNF20
About 5%-10% of AML is characterized by the rearrangement of a gene called MLL (Mixed-Lineage Leukemia). The MLL fusion proteins that result from this rearrangement are potent oncogenes -- cancer-causing genes. They are particularly common in infant acute leukemia, which is usually resistant to standard chemotherapy.
An emerging body of evidence implicates problems with chromatin, the packaging material for DNA within the cell nucleus, as a major cause of acute leukemia. Based on this, Vakoc's laboratory is searching for novel drug targets among chromatin proteins, with the hope of identifying new ways to fight this disease.
"We sifted through a class of proteins that add 'protein tags' to chromatin in a search for new therapeutic targets," says Eric Wang, a former technician in the Vakoc lab who led this study. Wang is currently a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University. These 'protein tags' are called ubiquitin and constitute one of many ways to control which genes are switched 'ON' or 'OFF' in our cells.
The team identified a protein called RNF20 that attaches ubiquitin tags to chromatin as being essential for the formation of leukemias caused by MLL-rearrangements. When they suppressed the expression of RNF20, the researchers were able to decrease leukemia cell proliferation in living mice, extending their lifespan.
Upon closer examination, the team realized that by targeting RNF20 they prevent MLL-fusion proteins from being able to work. "When we reduce the levels of RNF20 in leukemia cells, they revert back to being more like normal blood cells," says Shinpei Kawaoka, a postdoc in the Vakoc lab who also was involved in the study.
Vakoc's team proposes a model in which leukemia cells of the MLL-rearranged subtype come to rely on RNF20 to maintain their gene expression program, implicating it as a potential therapeutic target. Small-molecule drugs that target other proteins involved in regulating ubiquitin tags already exist so it is possible that drugs targeting RNF20 could be developed in the future for the treatment of MLL-rearranged leukemia.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Eric Wang, Shinpei Kawaoka, Ming Yu, Junwei Shi, Ting Ni, Wenjing Yang, Jun Zhu, Robert G. Roeder and Christopher R. Vakoc. Histone H2B ubiquitin ligase RNF20 is required for MLL-rearranged leukemia. Proceedings of the National Academy, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.201301045
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
LONDON (Reuters) - Passenger traffic at London's Heathrow airport edged up in January despite snow-related disruption, Heathrow Ltd, the British airport operator formerly known as BAA, said on Monday.
Of the 5.18 million people who passed through the London hub last month, passenger numbers to China rose 14.1 percent year-on-year with India also delivering good growth, the company said.
Domestic travel fell 5.8 percent but European and North American traffic was well up on January 2012.
Heavy snowfall last month led British airports to cancel hundreds of flights to allow more space between aircraft because of low visibility.
Heathrow's load factor - showing how full the average flight was - rose 2.1 percentage points to 70.0 percent during the month. However, cargo was down 5.3 percent, the group said.
January traffic at Gatwick, London's second largest airport which is owned by Global Infrastructure Partners, fell 0.8 percent to 2.1 million passengers on the same month a year ago.
JKX Oil & Gas (LON:JKX) announced this morning that the remaining P+P reserves for its Elizavetovskoye Field near Poltava, Ukraine have been revised upwards to 22 BCF (3.7 MMboe) with a further 20 MMboe of net prospective resources in the licence.
JKX Chief Executive, Dr Paul Davies, said: "We are very pleased that the data collected from our joint activity with the Ukrainian state production company has demonstrated both the materiality of the 2P reserves and the significant prospective resources on our Elizavetovskoye licence."
FoxDavies said: 'Today's announcement from JKX is a positive for the Company, but it doesn't exactly move the needle. JKX has come through a difficult time, but there is still a lot to do before its cash flow reaches sustainable levels, and starts to dramatically strengthen the balance sheet.'
JKX Oil & Gas are currently trading at 62.17 pence a share, up 2.77% on opening.
Range Resources (LON:RRL) announced this morning that the QUN 135 well makes discovery of a new oil reservoir in the Middle Cruse formation, indicating 50 ft. of net oil pay at approximately 3,500 ft., with the well successfully cemented with 5?" casing. The QUN 138 well successfully drilled and put into production with initial rates (five day average) of approximately 85 bopd. The QUN 139 well successfully reached revised target depth of 1,300 ft. and encountered total of 70 ft. of good quality oil sands, and 190 ft. of lower resistive oil sands in the Lower Forest formation to be perforated later this week. The QUN 133 well perforated and drilling to commence on QUN 140 and QUN 141 wells - all targeting the Lower Forest Formation.
Executive Director Peter Landau said: "We are extremely pleased with the results of the ongoing drilling program in Trinidad, and particularly with the discovery of new oil reservoir. The QUN 135 well confirms once again that the development potential on Range's Trinidad blocks remains largely untapped. Once production testing of this new zone is complete, we will make a determination as to how best to develop the reservoir as part of our expanding portfolio of exploratory, development, and secondary recovery opportunities in Trinidad."
Range Resources Ltd are currently trading at 3.75 pence a share, up 14.33% on opening.
Rialto Energy (LON:RIA) shares have risen by 16.62% this morning and are currently trading at 6.03 pence a share.
This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation
to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this
article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from
a qualified investment adviser. More
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
Share ] 
We've shown you the best ways to make the most money from your unwanted crap, but one gold mine that's often overlooked is the one that millions of people use every day: Facebook. 
