Former President Bill Clinton received the first advocate for change award at the annual GLAAD Media Awards, which celebrates inclusive representations of the LGBT community in the media.
By Michael Cidoni Lennox,?AP Entertainment Writer / April 21, 2013
Former US President Bill Clinton speaks on stage after he received the advocate for change award during the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at JW Marriott Los Angeles in L.A.
Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters
Enlarge
NBC's sitcom "The New Normal," FX's thriller "American Horror Story: Asylum" and NBC's daytime drama "Days of Our Lives" took home top TV honors at the 24th annual GLAAD Media Awards held Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
The GLAAD awards pay tribute to "inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives."
The event, hosted by actress-producer-director Drew Barrymore, boasted such Hollywood heavyweights as presenters Jennifer Morrison, Charlize Theron, Betty White and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Other winners included "Perks of Being a Wallflower," which was named outstanding film: wide release. Former President?Bill?Clinton?was given the first advocate for change award.
On the arrivals line, longtime?Clinton?friend, Oscar-winner Mary Steenburgen, defended the former president's controversial honor. Under?Clinton's?administration came the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriage, as well as the "don't ask, don't tell" military policy.
"Actually, ("don't ask, don't tell") was a sorrow for him," Steenburgen said. "So, I think he's spent a large part of his life making up for that. But I tell you this: He's never not had his heart in the right place, in terms of the gay community."
Many who walked the press gauntlet shared personal stories. Actor Justin Bartha said a brother's coming out moved him both personally and professionally.
"It was an inspiring moment ? I'm sure for him and definitely me and my whole family," Bartha noted. "So, it was at the forefront of my mind when looking at (the role of half of a gay couple in "The New Normal")."
"Kyle XY" actor Matt Dallas discussed his decision to come out publicly earlier this year. MSNBC news anchor Thomas Roberts talked about the recent marriage to his male partner of 12 years. Entertainment blogger Perez Hilton detailed the challenges of being the single gay parent of newly adopted child.
And transgendered Chaz Bono expressed hopes for the gay lesbian bisexual transgender community's future.
"I mean, I think the goal always has to be equality in all aspects under the law," he said. "You're never going to eradicate discrimination. We see that with other minorities. Racism is still, unfortunately, alive and well. But equal protection under the law makes a huge difference. So, I think, for me, that is the goal, that is the thing to strive for."
Additional 2013 GLAAD Media Awards were presented in New York on March 16. The final awards will be presented in San Francisco May 11.
On the web:?www.glaad.org
Follow Michael Cidoni Lennox at www.twitter.com/MikeCLennox
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Disappointment. Disgust. Grossly unfair.
That's how some families who lost loved ones in December's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school view the Senate's defeat this past week of the most far-reaching gun control legislation in two decades, as they pledged to keep fighting for measures to prevent gun violence.
Neil Heslin, Erica Lafferty and Carlee Soto were among the Newtown, Conn., family members who spent a week on Capitol Hill describing how their loved ones died at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. But their stories of horror and heroism were no match for a threat from the National Rifle Association to rate the vote, and concern from Republicans and a small band of rural-state Democrats.
Lafferty, whose mother, school principal Dawn Hochsprung, lunged unarmed at the gunman to stop him from firing the assault weapon, said she was "honestly disgusted that there were so many senators that are doing nothing about the fact that my mom was gunned down in her elementary school, along with five other educators and 20 6- and 7-year-old children."
The Senate rejected on Wednesday a series of gun control bills that would have tightened background checks for buyers, banned assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, and loosened restrictions on carrying concealed weapons across state lines, the last measure backed by the NRA.
Within hours of the votes, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords accused senators who opposed the new regulations of "cowardice" in a piece published in the New York Times' op-ed page. Giffords was among 13 people wounded two years ago when a lone gunman opened fire as she met with constituents in a Tucson, Ariz., shopping mall, killing six others. She and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, had lobbied for the bills' passage.
On CBS' "Face the Nation," moderator Bob Schieffer asked Heslin, Lafferty and Soto Sunday whether the words "cowardice" and "cowards" were appropriate to describe Wednesday's vote.
"I do," said Heslin, who's 6-year-old son Neil Lewis died at Sandy Hook. "I feel they're not standing up for what they should be."
Carlee Soto, recounted her sister Victoria's courage to try to save her students, Neil Lewis among them.
"My sister wasn't a coward that day. My sister pushed the kids up against the wall, out of sight," she said, adding, "She protected her kids. Why aren't they protecting us?" referring to the senators who voted against the gun bills.
The families say the gun legislation would have strengthened laws already in effect rather than undercut the Second Amendment, which provides a constitutional right to bear arms.
"It's beyond me how these congressmen cannot stand up and support something that would prevent ? or help prevent ? something like this from ever occurring again," Heslin said.
"We aren't going to go away. I know I'm not," he added. "We're not going to stop until there are changes that are made."
Tax Freedom Day?is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay off its total tax bill for the year.? Each Year, the Tax Foundations calculates that date, and for 2013 it's today, April 18.?
Not only do Americans have to work almost 30% of the year just to fund government, but the total amount of federal and state taxes paid will be $4.22 trillion ? and it won't come close to enough.? The federal government will borrow and spend almost a trillion dollars more than that!
From the Tax Foundation:
Tax Freedom Day 2013 is?April 18th. In 2013, Americans will pay $2.76 trillion in federal taxes and $1.45 trillion in state taxes, for a total tax bill of $4.22 trillion, or 29.4 percent of income. April 18 is 29.4 percent into the year.?
Read more
?
Family Small Businesses, the Heart of American Life
HANOVER, Maryland (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force Academy team on Friday beat out rivals from other elite military colleges after a three-day simulated cyber "war" against hackers from the National Security Agency that is meant to teach future officers the importance of cybersecurity.
Nearly 60 government experts ? sitting under a black skull and crossbones flag ? worked around the clock this week to break into computer networks built by students at the Air Force, Army, Navy, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine academies. Two military graduate schools also participated.
The annual Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX), now in its 13th year, gives students real world practice in fighting off a increasing barrage of cyber attacks aimed at U.S. computer networks by China, Russia and Iran, among others.
It also allows the NSA's top cyber experts and others from military reserves, National Guard units and other agencies hone their offensive skills at a time when the Pentagon is trying to pump up its arsenal of cyber weapons.
While the students sleep or catch up on other work, some of the NSA's "red cell" attackers use viruses, so-called "Trojan horses" and other malicious software to corrupt student-built networks or steal data ? in this case, long sets of numbers dreamt up by the officials coordinating the exercise.
But the job gets tougher every year, says Raphael Mudge, an Air Force reservist who develops software and training to protect private computer networks.
"It's challenging. The students are hungry to win," said Mudge. "It forces all of us to get better."
Army General Keith Alexander, who heads both the Pentagon's Cyber Command and the NSA, stopped by to see the "red cell" hackers in action at a Lockheed Martin Corp facility near NSA headquarters on Thursday, said spokeswoman Vanee Vines.
Alexander often speaks about the need to get more young people engaged in cybersecurity given the exponential growth in the number and intensity of attacks on U.S. networks.
The Pentagon's budget for cyber operations rose sharply in the fiscal 2014 request sent to Congress, reflecting heightened concerns about an estimated $400 billion in intellectual property stolen from U.S. computer networks in recent years.
Martin Carlisle said his 28-member team fought hard for first place after a hardware failure the first day. It was their fourth win in 13 years.
"Our nation is under attack. We need to train up a new generation of leaders," he said.
Shawn Turskey, a senior NSA official, said the goal was to raise awareness among future military commanders.
"The real payoff of this program is going to be seen 10, 15 years down the road when these individuals are admirals and generals," he said.
With the NFL Draft approaching, we?re taking a team-by-team look at the needs of each club. Up next is the team with the No. 24 overall selection, the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are short a second-rounder (from the Vontae Davis trade) and a fifth, and are picking later in the order than many expected after last year?s surprising playoff season.
Guard: It?s tempting to put tackle in the top spot, but picking where they are, it?s not a certainty they could find an upgrade to the acceptable-not-great left tackle Anthony Castonzo in the Draft. And after spending huge free agent money on right tackle Gosder Cherilus, they can?t justify taking someone there.
But they can fix the pass protection from the inside out. Signing Donald Thomas was another early move, but getting some more help up the middle might allow them to improve, even with tackles that are closer to average than great.
Running back: The Colts have gotten by with a bunch of guys in the backfield, and at some point, they?re going to have to give quarterback Andrew Luck a little more help. New offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton is willing to run, and they need a little more personnel in the backfield.
Cornerback: After acquiring Davis last year, the Colts have used the fringes of free agency to check off boxes. They signed Greg Toler during their first-day drunken-sailor act, and he?s been good when he?s been well. But he?s not so good that they can ignore this position.
Outside linebacker: After saying goodbye to Dwight Freeney, the Colts need to add a pass-rusher to complement Robert Mathis. They gave Green Bay?s Erik Walden too much money (but good for him), but need an upgrade there as well. They talked about his ability to set the edge, but they need someone to sack the quarterback.
Wide receiver: Reggie Wayne is still great, and T.Y. Hilton emerged as a playmaker. And though they signed Darrius Heyward-Bey, they need to think of the long-term here, and find someone who will take up the torch when Wayne?s no longer there.
The Colts are in an interesting spot. They have a young quarterback on a cheap rookie contract, which gives them flexibility to do so many things. And credit to general manager Ryan Grigson for knowing what he needed, and moving aggressively to fill needs in free agency so he could draft for talent.
But with a pile of salary cap room, they spent on guys who were fortunate to receive the deals they did. While they filled a lot of lines on the depth chart, not all of the guys they signed this spring are difference-makers.
Luck could prove to be the ultimate deodorant, and keep an ordinary cast of characters competitive. But if they can?t find him some consistent help up front, it?s going to be hard for him to play at a high level, when he?s spending so much time on his back.
[This essay will appear in "Animals," the Spring 2013 issue of Lapham's Quarterly. This slightly adapted version is posted at Tom Dispatch and Mother Jones with the kind permission of that magazine.]
London housewife Barbara Carter won a "grant a wish" charity contest, and said she wanted to kiss and cuddle a lion. Wednesday night she was in a hospital in shock and with throat wounds. Mrs. Carter, forty-six, was taken to the lions' compound of the Safari Park at Bewdley Wednesday. As she bent forward to stroke the lioness, Suki, it pounced and dragged her to the ground. Wardens later said, "We seem to have made a bad error of judgment."
-- British news bulletin, 1976
Having once made a similar error of judgment with an Australian koala, I know it to be the one the textbooks define as the failure to grasp the distinction between an animal as an agent of nature and an animal as a symbol of culture. The koala was supposed to be affectionate, comforting, and cute. Of this I was certain because it was the creature of my own invention that for two weeks in the spring of 1959 I'd been presenting to readers of the San Francisco Examiner prior to its release by the Australian government into the custody of the Fleishacker Zoo.
The Examiner was a Hearst newspaper, the features editor not a man to ignore a chance for sure-fire sentiment, my task that of the reporter assigned to provide the advance billing. Knowing little or nothing about animals other than what I'd read in children's books or seen in Walt Disney cartoons, I cribbed from the Encyclopedia Britannica (Phascolarctos cinereus, ash-colored fur, nocturnal, fond of eucalyptus leaves), but for the most part I relied on A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, the tales of Brer Rabbit, and archival images of President Teddy Roosevelt, the namesake for whom the teddy bear had been created and stuffed, in 1903 by a toy manufacturer in Brooklyn.
Stouthearted, benevolent, and wise, the koala incoming from the Antipodes was the little friend of all the world, and on the day of its arrival at the airport, I was carrying roses wrapped in a cone of newsprint. The features editor had learned his trade in Hollywood in the 1940s, and he had in mind a camera shot of my enfolding a teddy bear in a warm and welcoming embrace. "Lost child found in the wilderness," he had said. "Lassie comes home." The koala didn't follow script. Annoyed by the flashbulbs, clawing furiously at my head and shoulders, it bloodied my shirt and tie, shredded the roses, urinated on my suit and shoes.
The unpleasantness didn't make the paper. The photograph was taken before the trouble began, and so the next morning in print, there we were, the koala and I, man and beast glad to see one another, the San Francisco Examiner's very own Christopher Robin framed in the glow of an A-list fairy tale with Brer Rabbit, Teddy Roosevelt, and Winnie-the-Pooh, all for one and one for all as once had been our common lot in Eden.
The Pantomime of Brutes
Rumors and reports of human relations with animals are the world's oldest news stories, headlined in the stars of the zodiac, posted on the walls of prehistoric caves, inscribed in the languages of Egyptian myth, Greek philosophy, Hindu religion, Christian art, our own DNA. Belonging within the circle of humankind's intimate acquaintance until somewhere toward the end of the nineteenth century, animals appeared as both agents of nature and symbols of culture. Constant albeit speechless companions, they supplied energies fit to be harnessed or roasted, but they also were believed to possess qualities inherent in human beings, subject to the close observation of the ways in which man and beast both resembled and differed from one another.
Unable to deliver lectures, the lion and the elephant taught by example; so did the turtle, the wolf, and the ant. Aesop's Fables, composed in the sixth century BC, accorded with the further researches of Aristotle, who, about 200 years later, in his History of Animals, set up the epistemological framework that for the next two millennia incorporated the presence of animals in the center ring of what became known as Western civilization:
"Just as we pointed out resemblances in the physical organs, so in a number of animals we observe gentleness or fierceness, mildness or cross temper, courage or timidity, fear or confidence, high spirits or low cunning... Other qualities in man are represented by analogous and not identical qualities; for instance, just as in man we find knowledge, wisdom, and sagacity, so in certain animals there exists some other natural potentiality akin to these."
Other peoples in other parts of the world developed different sets of relations with animals worshipped as gods, but in the European theaters of operation, they served as teachers of both natural and political science. The more that was learned about their "analogous and not identical qualities," the more fabulous they became. Virgil's keeping of bees on his country estate in 30 BC led him in book four of the Georgics to admire their work ethic?"At dawn they pour forth from the gates?no loitering"; to applaud their sense of a public and common good?"they share the housing of their city,/passing their lives under exalted laws"; to approve of their chastity?"They forebear to indulge/in copulation or to enervate/their bodies in Venus' ways."
The studies of Pliny the Elder in the first century demonstrated to his satisfaction that so exceptional were the wonders of the animal kingdom that man by comparison "is the only animal that knows nothing and can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak, nor walk, nor eat, nor do anything without the prompting of nature, but only weep."
To the scientific way of looking at animals adapted by the Greco-Roman poets and philosophers, medieval Christianity added the dimension of science fiction?any and all agents of nature not to be trusted until or unless they had been baptized in the font of a symbol or herded into the cage of an allegory. In the illuminated pages of tenth-century bibles and the rose windows of Gothic cathedrals, the bee became a sign of hope, the crow and the goat both references to Satan, the fly indicative of lust, the lamb and the dove variant embodiments of Christ. Instead of remarking upon the extraordinary talents of certain animals, the holy fathers produced mythical beings, among them the dragon (huge, batwinged, fire breathing, barbed tail) and the unicorn (white body, blue eyes, the single horn on its forehead colored red at the tip).
The resurrection of classical antiquity in fifteenth-century Italy restored the emphasis on the observable correlation between man and beast. The anatomical drawings in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks (of horses, swans, human cadavers) are works of art of a match with The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. He saw human beings as organisms among other organisms participant in the great chain of being, the various life forms merging into one another in their various compounds of air, earth, fire, and water. Giuseppe Arcimboldo's 1566 portrait of a man's head anticipates the conclusion reached in 1605 by the English bishop Joseph Hall: "Mankind, therefore, hath within itself his goats, chameleons, salamanders, camels, wolves, dogs, swine, moles, and whatever sorts of beasts: there are but a few men amongst men."
The eighteenth-century naturalists shared with Virgil the looking to the animal kingdom for signs of good government. The Count of Buffon, keeper of the royal botanical garden for King Louis XV, recognized in 1767 the beaver as a master architect capable of building important dams, but he was even more impressed by the engineering of the beaver's civil society, by "some particular method of understanding one another, and of acting in concert? However numerous the republic of beavers may be, peace and good order are uniformly maintained in it."
The Internet, your number one property business supply for advertising, is produced up of hundreds of millions of Internet pages at this point. Most shoppers, in order to discover the pages on the topics they need?
To construct your Net advertising and marketing achievement for your property enterprise you need to recognize search engines and how their optimization helps you grow your on the web business site visitors. Search engine optimization (Search engine optimization)is a powerful element of your Web advertising strategy. Right here is what its all about.
The Web, your quantity a single residence enterprise source for advertising and marketing, is made up of hundreds of millions of Web pages at this point. Most customers, in order to find the pages on the topics they need turn to search engines. These search engines are developed to help customers locate their way to other relevant sites.
Although each and every search engine has its own way of operating, there are three key tasks that all carry out. No matter whether the search engine is MSN, Google, Ask.Com, Yahoo or 1 of the myriad of other search engines out there, it searches the World wide web based on several important words. It then keeps its personal index of the words that it finds and exactly where it has found them. The third prevalent activity of these search engines is to enable any customer to search through these words or word combinations that are stored in the search engines index.
When the initial search engines had been introduced, and prior to residence enterprise and its Web and affiliate marketing and advertising was as prominent as they are today, a search engine may well have to handle as many as two thousand consumer inquiries daily. Now the leading 10 search engines generally each and every have an index that holds several hundreds of millions of Net pages. Every need to respond to several million day-to-day search queries.
Whats critical here, to the new home organization owner who demands to accomplish some productive Net advertising, is that her or his enterprise Web website is discovered frequently and easily and towards the top rated of the returns on these search engines when a consumer conducts a query. Search engine optimization and smart affiliate marketing and advertising are the tools to make this come about. local marketing
There are two crucial elements to a home organization Web web site getting discovered on a major search engine. The Net advertising ploy here is two-pronged. The home organization owner need to select the correct essential words to place on the web site, and these words ought to be situated in the right spot on the web page. Important locations for critical words are titles, subtitles and the first paragraph of the landing web page.
To recognize residence company Net marketing and advertising via search engine optimization you should recognize meta tags.
What these helpful small World wide web marketing buddies do is let the web page owner specify selected crucial concepts and words below which he or she desires the web page and internet site to be indexed. The greatest way this assists the home business Internet advertising and marketing strategy is by clarifying words for which there are multiple meanings. The problem with meta tags, and 1 which a great search engine spider will resolve, is that an unscrupulous, fraudulent or careless web site owner can place meta tags of well-liked key phrases to bring buyers to his or her internet site when the site has little if anything to do with the keyword.
Obviously nothing at all is perfect or fraud-totally free, but Seo is nevertheless a single of the best signifies for Net marketing and advertising and affiliate marketing your home business.
A US government report detailing widespread waste and missed opportunities in America?s $60 billion reconstruction effort in Iraq is unlikely to dramatically alter America?s aid policy, say international development experts.
Yesterday the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released a report entitled Learning From Iraqthat examined many of the challenges and mistakes that led to the wasting of at least $8 billion, or 13.3 percent of US reconstruction spending in Iraq.
Although the report offered suggestions for improvement, the US continues to fund a number of programs in Afghanistan that bear a strong resemblance to the failed Iraq projects outlined in the report.
RECOMMENDED: How well do you know Afghanistan? Take our quiz.
Ashley Jackson, a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, says that most of the problems highlighted in SIGIR?s final report on Iraq were issues the agency repeatedly warned Congress and Presidents Bush and Obama about.
?This is something they started reporting on years ago and nothing has changed,? she says.
SIGIR?s sister institution, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, has issued regular reports on US spending in Afghanistan, uncovering many of the same wasteful spending patterns. Both organizations? findings have resulted in numerous criminal investigations, but Ms. Jackson says the watchdogs lack the authority to implement aggressive changes that could prevent future waste.
?These agencies are really useful in exposing things, but unless they have the ability to correct them, it?s not going to happen. It?s just going to be another report,? says Jackson, who has worked extensively in Afghanistan.
Providing adequate oversight remained a consistent problem in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where security concerns prevented American monitors from directly supervising the work they funded or making regular site visits.
As the US looks to provide aid to areas such as Pakistan, Yemen, and other strategically important countries, the question of project oversight in dangerous areas remains a consistent problem that many development experts say remains unaddressed. Additionally, the political climate has made it more difficult for policymakers to enact measures that would support more front-line monitoring.
?The 9/11 attack in Benghazi proved that the political atmosphere in Washington DC won?t accept risk. Everything is hyper-politicized,? says James Miller, a Syria analyst and associate editor of EA Worldview. ?Money being wasted is a political liability, but I think that money being wasted is less of a liability than lives being wasted.?
Still, George Ingram, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, says that it?s problematic to use reconstruction programs for Iraq and Afghanistan as examples for most US assistance programs.
The sheer size of the Iraq and Afghanistan programs, $60 billion and $89 billion respectively, make them anomalous. If anything, he says the two wars may have taught the US that it is often better served by more modest spending that allows for more careful planning and comprehensive oversight.
?You haven?t seen the US rush massive amounts of assistance into the Middle East. I think it?s been a combination of a difficult budget situation, but also a little more humility on the ability of the US to rush in with large amounts of money and create sustainable solutions to the problems there,? says Mr. Ingram.
?You?re already beginning to see the impact of some lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, of the US being more cautious and moving a little slower until it gets a better fix of what?s going on in the country and how we can be helpful effectively.?
RECOMMENDED: How well do you know Afghanistan? Take our quiz.
Virgin Atlantic has unveiled more details about its forthcoming domestic flights, which are scheduled to launch at the end of this month.
Services will operate under the branding ?Little Red?, with flights from Heathrow to Manchester launching on March 31, followed by Edinburgh on April 5 and Aberdeen on April 9.
Little Red will offer four return daily services to Manchester, six to Edinburgh and three to Aberdeen.
Customers will benefit from 23kg of free checked luggage, pre-assigned seats and free drinks and snacks, including ?hot breakfasts on early morning flights.
Eligible passengers will also be able to use shared lounge services at Aberdeen and Edinburgh (Servisair), and Manchester (Manchester Airport Authority Lounge).
Virgin confirmed plans for the launch of services to Scotland in November last year, when it secured the rights to Heathrow slots released following the purchase of Bmi by BA?s parent company IAG.
Virgin Atlantic?s founder and president Sir Richard Branson said: ?Virgin Atlantic has been on an incredible journey since we started with a single plane 29 years ago. Little Red represents the next step on that journey as we go head to head with British Airways to provide domestic flights that deliver Virgin Atlantic?s rock and roll spirit as well as real value for money.
?The European Commission recognised that a British Airways monopoly would be undeniably bad for consumers and Virgin Atlantic Little Red will stop British Airways dominating routes and driving higher prices.?
Little Red services will operate from Heathrow Terminal 1, so passengers looking to connect to or from Virgin Atlantic?s international flights will need to transfer between there and Terminal 3.
Virgin says Little Red?s schedules will offer ?excellent connections with Virgin Atlantic?s international flights?, and include ?early flights to serve business fliers reaching morning meetings in each city?.
The carrier will operate domestic flights using single-class Airbus A320 aircraft leased from Aer Lingus.
Tumors deliberately create conditions that inhibit body's best immune responsePublic release date: 1-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Marianne Slegers marianne.slegers@kcl.ac.uk 44-207-848-3840 King's College London
New research in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reveals that tumours in melanoma patients deliberately create conditions that knock out the body's 'premier' immune defence and instead attract a weaker immune response unable to kill off the tumour's cancerous cells.
The study also highlights a potential antibody biomarker that could help predict prognosis and identify which patients are most likely to respond to specific treatments.
The research, led by Dr Sophia Karagiannis and Professor Frank Nestle at King's College London, UK, was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London.
Karagiannis and colleagues have previously shown that, in patients with melanoma, antibodies are produced that can attack tumour cells. Despite this, the patient's immune system is often ineffective in preventing the cancer from progressing.
The body's B cells (part of the immune system) produce a total of 5 different antibody classes. The most common, IgG, comprises 4 types (or subclasses) of which the researchers have shown that IgG1 subclass antibodies are the most effective at activating immune cells, while antibodies of the IgG4 subclass are thought to be the least efficient.
In this new research, the authors analysed tumour tissue and blood donated by 80 patients from the melanoma clinic of St John's Institute of Dermatology at Guy's and St Thomas', as well as tissue and blood from healthy volunteers.
By analysing the lesions found in melanoma, the authors show that melanoma tumours not only create conditions that attract IgG4, the weakest possible response, but also that IgG4 antibodies interfere with the action of any IgG1 antibodies circulating. "We were able to mimic the conditions created by melanoma tumours and showed that B cells can be polarised to produce IgG4 antibodies in the presence of cancer cells," says Dr Karagiannis. In the presence of healthy cells, the body's immune response functions normally, and IgG1 are the main antibodies circulating.
To better understand the functional implications of IgG4 subclass antibodies in cancer, the authors engineered these two antibodies (IgG1, IgG4) against a tumour antigen and demonstrated that unlike IgG1, the IgG4 antibody was ineffective in triggering immune cells to kill cancer cells. Importantly, IgG4 also blocked the tumour cell killing actions of IgG1, thus preventing this antibody from activating immune cells to destroy tumours.
Additionally, using samples from 33 patients, the authors found that patients with higher IgG4 levels in their blood are more likely to have a less favourable prognosis compared to those whose blood levels of IgG4 are closer to normal levels. This suggests that IgG4 may help assist in predicting disease progression.
"This work bears important implications for future therapies since not only are IgG4 antibodies ineffective in activating immune cells to kill tumours but they also work by blocking antibodies from killing tumour cells," says Dr Karagiannis. "The latter means that IgG4 not only prevents the patient's more powerful antibodies from eradicating cancer, but could also explain why treatments may be hindered by those native IgG4 antibodies found in patients, making therapeutic antibodies less effective."
"Now, with the help of our NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, more work needs to be done on developing IgG4 as a potential clinical and prognostic biomarker which can improve patient care by informing clinical decisions and helping to identify patients most likely to respond to treatments," concludes Professor Nestle. Therefore, these findings are expected to inform the design and help improve the potency and efficacy of future therapies for cancer. "This study can also inform the rational design of novel strategies to counteract IgG4 actions."
The authors are now broadening the study by examining larger groups of patients. The team is analysing blood and sera from patients with melanoma and from patients with other cancers to determine whether the presence of IgG4 could inform patient outcomes or predict responses to therapy. They are also analysing the mechanisms of IgG4 blockade of new and existing therapeutic antibody candidates, and developing new antibody candidates which may be less prone to IgG4 blockade.
###
To interview Dr Sophia Karagiannis, please contact Marianne Slegers, King's College London, UK. T) +44 (0)207 848 3840 E) Marianne.slegers@kcl.ac.uk
A copy of the full study is attached to the email in this release.
Notes to editors:
Note to editors: The study additionally benefited from support from Cancer Research UK (CR UK) and CR UK New Agents Committee; and by the CR UK//NIHR Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS World University Rankings), and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 25,000 students (of whom more than 10,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly 450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare
[ | 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.
Tumors deliberately create conditions that inhibit body's best immune responsePublic release date: 1-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Marianne Slegers marianne.slegers@kcl.ac.uk 44-207-848-3840 King's College London
New research in the Journal of Clinical Investigation reveals that tumours in melanoma patients deliberately create conditions that knock out the body's 'premier' immune defence and instead attract a weaker immune response unable to kill off the tumour's cancerous cells.
The study also highlights a potential antibody biomarker that could help predict prognosis and identify which patients are most likely to respond to specific treatments.
The research, led by Dr Sophia Karagiannis and Professor Frank Nestle at King's College London, UK, was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London.
Karagiannis and colleagues have previously shown that, in patients with melanoma, antibodies are produced that can attack tumour cells. Despite this, the patient's immune system is often ineffective in preventing the cancer from progressing.
The body's B cells (part of the immune system) produce a total of 5 different antibody classes. The most common, IgG, comprises 4 types (or subclasses) of which the researchers have shown that IgG1 subclass antibodies are the most effective at activating immune cells, while antibodies of the IgG4 subclass are thought to be the least efficient.
In this new research, the authors analysed tumour tissue and blood donated by 80 patients from the melanoma clinic of St John's Institute of Dermatology at Guy's and St Thomas', as well as tissue and blood from healthy volunteers.
By analysing the lesions found in melanoma, the authors show that melanoma tumours not only create conditions that attract IgG4, the weakest possible response, but also that IgG4 antibodies interfere with the action of any IgG1 antibodies circulating. "We were able to mimic the conditions created by melanoma tumours and showed that B cells can be polarised to produce IgG4 antibodies in the presence of cancer cells," says Dr Karagiannis. In the presence of healthy cells, the body's immune response functions normally, and IgG1 are the main antibodies circulating.
To better understand the functional implications of IgG4 subclass antibodies in cancer, the authors engineered these two antibodies (IgG1, IgG4) against a tumour antigen and demonstrated that unlike IgG1, the IgG4 antibody was ineffective in triggering immune cells to kill cancer cells. Importantly, IgG4 also blocked the tumour cell killing actions of IgG1, thus preventing this antibody from activating immune cells to destroy tumours.
Additionally, using samples from 33 patients, the authors found that patients with higher IgG4 levels in their blood are more likely to have a less favourable prognosis compared to those whose blood levels of IgG4 are closer to normal levels. This suggests that IgG4 may help assist in predicting disease progression.
"This work bears important implications for future therapies since not only are IgG4 antibodies ineffective in activating immune cells to kill tumours but they also work by blocking antibodies from killing tumour cells," says Dr Karagiannis. "The latter means that IgG4 not only prevents the patient's more powerful antibodies from eradicating cancer, but could also explain why treatments may be hindered by those native IgG4 antibodies found in patients, making therapeutic antibodies less effective."
"Now, with the help of our NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, more work needs to be done on developing IgG4 as a potential clinical and prognostic biomarker which can improve patient care by informing clinical decisions and helping to identify patients most likely to respond to treatments," concludes Professor Nestle. Therefore, these findings are expected to inform the design and help improve the potency and efficacy of future therapies for cancer. "This study can also inform the rational design of novel strategies to counteract IgG4 actions."
The authors are now broadening the study by examining larger groups of patients. The team is analysing blood and sera from patients with melanoma and from patients with other cancers to determine whether the presence of IgG4 could inform patient outcomes or predict responses to therapy. They are also analysing the mechanisms of IgG4 blockade of new and existing therapeutic antibody candidates, and developing new antibody candidates which may be less prone to IgG4 blockade.
###
To interview Dr Sophia Karagiannis, please contact Marianne Slegers, King's College London, UK. T) +44 (0)207 848 3840 E) Marianne.slegers@kcl.ac.uk
A copy of the full study is attached to the email in this release.
Notes to editors:
Note to editors: The study additionally benefited from support from Cancer Research UK (CR UK) and CR UK New Agents Committee; and by the CR UK//NIHR Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS World University Rankings), and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 25,000 students (of whom more than 10,000 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 6,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a 1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly 450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare
[ | 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.
Rockbridge County resident Charles Bodie makes the 15- minute drive to Leyburn library to check his email because his home service is too slow. Photo by Mickey Gorman.
By Mickey Gorman
Rockbridge County?s new fiber optic broadband network will eventually allow residents like Charles Bodie to access high-speed Internet connections from the comfort of their own homes.
Bodie, who lives in Kerrs Creek, said he drives at least 15 minutes to use the Internet at Leyburn Library in Lexington because the connection at his house is so poor.
?We have what is called dial-up, which is by the phone line, and when you use the Internet that way you have a long wait,? Bodie said. ?There is a long delay of 30 minutes or more.
Bodie said he is excited for the arrival of a faster Internet connection, though he may have to wait a little longer.
The newly installed network will be tested in Lexington this week before going live in the city at the end of March. But parts of Rockbridge County will have to wait up to two years before having access to the network?s high-speed communication services.
The Rockbridge Area Network Authority (RANA), a group of leaders from Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista cities, and Washington and Lee University, formed in 2009 after receiving a federal grant to bring high speed Internet to the county.
RANA?s board of directors is hopeful that ?a major portion? of Lexington will be ready to connect in March, said Dan Grim, the board secretary.
Grim said it was impossible to say exactly how much of Lexington?s fiber optic line will be ready following the tests.
Though early predictions pinned the project?s completion at the end of March, he said, installation setbacks pushed the deadline back.
Only portions of Lexington will have an operating fiber optic system by the end of next month. Fiber network construction should be completed in May, according to the RANA website.
Connecting to Fiber Optic in Lexington
After Lexington?s network is tested this week, ?city residents will have to wait for RANA to strike a deal with an Internet service provider before accessing the fiber optic line.
RANA will physically connect businesses and homes to the fiber optic line through in-ground installations. Private companies will provide the Internet and communication services.
Many of these companies are withholding their bids to provide services until the line is tested and running, said Hunt Riegel, RANA?s Rockbridge County representative.
Riegel said RANA board members feel that they are close to finalizing a deal with one local Internet service provider, Rockbridge Global Village.
?We are basically agreed in principal,? said Dusan Janjic, the President of Rockbridge Global Village. He said the lawyers are still working out the wording of the contract, but should be finished around April.
RANA plans to install as much of the fiber optic network as it can before the project?s $7 million federal stimulus grant runs out in July.
Plans for northern parts of the county
Parts of northern Rockbridge County will be excluded from the project until there are funds available to extend the network, Riegel said.
RANA plans to use revenue from operating the fiber optic network to fund these final stages of installation, he said.
Once the fiber optic network is up and running, Internet service providers will sign contracts with RANA to connect residents to the fiber optic line. RANA will receive a portion of the money from residents? Internet bill payments, which will be used to fund the remaining installations.
Riegel said he expects RANA to make a profit by December and have money to connect the rest of the county within two years.
?It is what it is,? said Buffalo district supervisor John Higgins during the Rockbridge County board meeting on February 25. ?I hope they can eventually get [fiber optic] service out to the county where they need it.?
The northern parts of the county will not be without ?high-speed Internet? until then. County residents will have access to Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, cabinets that were installed in addition to fiber optic lines, Grim said.
The DSL cabinets were attached to telephone poles where the ground installation of the fiber optic line ran into trouble, he said.
DSL versus fiber optic broadband
DSL services carry the Internet signal to users through a copper wire, typically in the form of a phone line, while a fiber optic line is run through a glass filament installed in the ground.
A DSL line carries a limited amount of data because of its narrow bandwidth, or cable size, relative to a fiber optic line.
A fiber optic cable operating at full capacity will be two thousand times faster than a DSL cable operating at full capacity, Riegel said.
Most homes and businesses in Rockbridge County will never come close to transferring enough data to push the fiber optic network to its full capacity, he said.
Homeowners and business owners can expect service that is ?six or seven times faster? than what they?re used to with the fiber optic network, Riegel said.
?
For previous coverage on RANA?s progress:
Broadband network moves forward despite early issues, October 2012
Broadband network cutbacks get glum reception, March 2012
Broadband?s reach curtailed, March 2012
Broadband expected to boost area economy, January 2012
County residents slow to allow fiber optic cables on their property, January 2012
Editor's Note:?Listen to the full story in our player above, and join the conversation in our comments section below.
(CNN) ? Hot dog carts, with their blue and yellow awnings, are practically on every street corner in New York City.
No one pays much attention to the vendors other than during the 15-20 seconds it takes to buy a hot dog and a drink. But if you stopped to talk to one you might be surprised to learn how mighty the small sidewalk business is.
[4:16] ?It provides my rent money, provides my kids? tution, pays for Greek school, pays for my daughter?s ballet school, her tutor lessons. So it?s all from me for here.? said Gus Argy.
He?s the third generation of his family to man the hot dog cart across the street from New York?s City Hall.
The hot dog cart has even paid for retirement homes in Greece.
[1:21] ?My uncle? He lived in Queens, he raised two kids, he had a wife, he bought a couple of houses? he made a house in Greece. He lived comfortably. He worked seven days a week, though.?
Today, a grilled hot dog will run you $2. For $1.75 you can get one that has been sitting in boiled water all day earning it the street nickname ?dirty water dog.?
Absolutely it's ridiculous to compare a roulette wheel to investing in trust deeds. But not any more ridiculous than to refer to high yields without referring to risk. Risk is a player in every investment decision, whether that decision is a treasury bond, a house, a trust deed, or a roulette wheel.
So why does putting investment returns in the context of their risk offend you so much that you ask that I be ignored? I never said that trust deed investment was equivalent to the roulette wheel. I actually didn't know we were talking about trust deeds so I couldn't have been comparing the 2. My initial reference to risk was that houses can often yield a very low risk 8%. To which you responded that higher yields are possible. I agree, but without knowing the risk involved that's a meaningless number. Hence the obviously offensive reference to putting it on black.
Retirement savings is about getting good returns while balancing risk. There are always ways to rev up returns, but they involve increased risks. Maybe that increased risk is appropriate for a retirement fund, maybe not.
Stocking picking systems will promise huge returns if you follow the right guru. And real estate has more than it's share of prophets, all of whom for a fee will lead you to the Promised Land.
But without understanding the risks involved the promise of higher returns is meaningless. That was my only point.
Due to Winter Storm Nemo, the College of Staten Island is postponing its regular season home finales scheduled for this evening at the Sports & Recreation Center.? The basketball doubleheader between CSI and John Jay College, originally scheduled for 5:30pm (Men) and 7:30pm (Women), will be moved to Sunday, February 10, with tip-off times scheduled for 12:00pm (Men) and 2:00pm (Women).
The contests will be CSI?s final home regular season games and will honor seniors Herschel Jenkins and Olivia Tierno.? The doubleheader also carries heavy playoff inplications.? A win by the CSI men in their final two games clinches the CUNYAC Regular Season Championship.? The CSI women could guarantee a first-round quarterfinal home game with a win over John Jay as well.?
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:
1. EX-COP'S CHILLING JUSTIFICATION FOR CALIF. KILLING SPREE
"I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own," he says in an online manifesto. "I'm terminating yours."
2. BRENNAN: WATERBOARDING 'REPREHENSIBLE'
Whether or not it produces useful information, the U.S. should never waterboard anyone again, he tells a Senate panel.
3. HOW PEOPLE ARE PREPPING FOR THE NORTHEAST BLIZZARD
Diane Lopes visited a packed supermarket in Gloucester, Mass., to stock up on basic foods ? "and lots of wine."
4. IRAN'S CHARM OFFENSIVE IN EGYPT
Ahmadinejad reaches out to Morsi in hopes of forging an alliance that could remake the balance of power in the Middle East.
5. FEW DISPLEASED BY POST OFFICE CUTS
Even many seniors, who remember when mail was a lifeline to the outside world, say they can do without Saturday delivery, which now brings mostly bills and junk.
6. WHY YOU SHOULDN'T SWEAT THIS ASTROID FLYBY
Scientists promise the 150-foot-wide rock will be at least 17,100 miles away when it zips past next Friday.
7. APPLE FACES A REBELLION
An influential investor, Greenlight Capital, wants the company to stop stockpiling cash and give it to shareholders instead.
8. SOUTHERN FOODS LINKED TO STROKES
Blacks in the Southeast suffer more strokes than anyone else ? and fried meals and sugary drinks may be to blame.
9. OSCAR-NOMINATED SHORT FILM CARRIES AN AFGHAN BOY TO HOLLYWOOD
The coming-of-age movie is the 14-year-old's ticket to the Academy Awards. It'll be his very first flight.
10. WHAT'S MAKING RUSSIA'S PRESIDENT FUME
A year before the Winter Olympics, Putin can't abide the huge cost overruns in Sochi, the host city.
Since the observations made by English naturalist Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands, researchers have been interested in how physical barriers, such as isolation on a particular island, can lead to the formation of new species through the process of natural selection. Natural selection is a process whereby heritable traits that enhance survival become more common in successive generations, while unfavorable heritable traits become less common. Over time, animals and plants that have morphologies or other attributes that enhance their suitability to a particular environment become more common and more adapted to that specific environment.
Researchers today are intimately familiar with how physical barriers and reproduction isolation can lead to the formation of new species on land, especially among plants and animals with short generation times such as insects and annual plants. Michael E. Hellberg, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at LSU, however, is interested in a more obscure form of speciation: the speciation of animals in the ocean.
"Marine plants and animals can drift around in the ocean extremely long distances," Hellberg said. "So how do they specialize?"
In a recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, Hellberg and his graduate student Carlos Prada investigate how corals specialize to particular environments in the ocean. Corals, animals that form coral reefs and some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, start their lifecycle with a free floating larval stage. Coral larvae can disperse vast distances in open water. Different coral species share similar geographical locations, with different species often existing only yards apart. As Prada and Hellberg propose in their recent publication, the large dispersal potential of coral larvae in open water and the proximity of different species on the ocean floor creates a mystery for researchers who study speciation. Hellberg and Prada ask, "How can new marine species emerge without obvious geographic isolation?"
When it comes to corals within the relatively small confines of the Caribbean, which spans approximately 3 million square kilometers, the key to the puzzle appears to be habitat depth in the ocean. In others words, natural selection has led to the formation of different coral species according to how deep in the ocean these different corals grow.
Prada and Hellberg study candelabrum corals of the genus Eunicea, generally known as "sea fans," for which sister species have been shown to be segregated by ocean depth. One sister species survives better in shallow waters, while the other is better adapted to deep waters. These corals, like other corals, are very slow-growing animals. In fact, sea fan corals don't reach reproduction age until they are 15-30 years old, and can continue reproducing until they are 60 or more years old. So while candelabrum coral larvae can disperse large distances from their parents, landing and beginning to grow in either shallow or deep water habitats, small differences in survival rates at different depths between the two species and long generation times can combine to produce segregation.
"When these coral larvae first settle out after dispersal, they are all mixed up," Hellberg said. "But long larvae-to-reproduction times can compound small differences in survival at different depths. By the time these corals get to reproduction age, a lot has changed."
The shallow water sea fan coral even has a different morphology than its deep water sister. The shallow water coral fans out into a wide network of branches, while the deep water coral grows tall and spindly. According to Hellberg, these differences in morphology might well be genetic, with the different corals having different protein structures and levels of expression that are better adapted to their specific water depth environment. Hellberg hopes in future research to investigate the genetic basis of these different morphologies.
In other interesting results, Prada explained how transplanting the shallow coral species to deep water environments, and vice versa, can cause the coral to take on a morphology more like that of its sister species.
"Their morphologies are not super fixed," Prada said. "But they can't change all the way to a different morphology."
Prada observed that while shallow water sea fans can become taller and more spindly when transplanted in deep water environments, they don't seem to be able to make a complete transition to the morphology of the deep water sea fan. This suggests that the two corals, while they likely had a common ancestor, have adapted genetically and biochemically to their respective water depths.
Prada did ocean dives in the Bahamas, Panama, Puerto Rico and Cura?ao to sample candelabrum coral colonies. Back in the lab, he performed tests on the coral samples' genes to determine how shallow and deep corals become genetically different.
"Normally, organisms are differentiated by geography," Prada said. "But these corals are differentiated by depth."
Prada and Hellberg's research provides new insights into how new species form in the ocean, a topic of relatively limited research as opposed to speciation of terrestrial organisms.
###
Original paper, visit http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/01/22/1208931110
Louisiana State University: http://www.lsu.edu
Thanks to Louisiana State University for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
He?s known as ?America?s Toughest Sheriff?. But Joe Arpaio continues to show he deserves the moniker of??America?s JOBS Sheriff?.?Because every time Sheriff Joe conducts a raid, he frees up jobs for legal American workers.
And at a time when raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are almost unheard of ? Barack Obama has slashed workplace enforcement by a staggering 70% since 2009 ? Sheriff Joe and his department keep on working to crack down on illegal aliens in the workplace.
Today was no exception, as?Maricopa County Sheriff?s deputies raided?Sportex Apparel?in Tempe, AZ, ?a custom-made sports clothing and accessories company ? and arrested 27 illegal aliens, most of whom were caught using stolen or false identification.
In a seven-month long investigation, deputies learned that as many as 19 employees were using false or stolen IDs to work at Sportex, said Officer Christopher Hegstrom with MCSO.?After Friday?s raid, 23 illegals were arrested for ID theft. Four others were taken into custody for outstanding criminal warrants, totaling 27 arrests.
This was the sheriff?s 61st such sweep. In the previous 60 employer sanctions/identity theft operations, 100% of all suspects found to be committing identity theft to gain employment were illegal aliens.? Sheriff Joe?s office has? investigated, arrested on the? streets and in the jails over 79,000 illegal aliens.
?Illegal aliens are stealing identities of U.S. citizens to gain employment which escalates our unemployment problems. I? don?t? believe we should tolerate this. Furthermore, I will continue to enforce all federal and state illegal immigration laws in the business sector through human smuggling and crime suppression operations, despite activists and the federal government who may not like it,? ?said the Sheriff.
There is not yet indication whether some of the illegal aliens were using the social security numbers of dead persons, as has happened many times in the past, including ones of murder victims.
Arpaio said that one of the benefits of these employer sanctions/identity theft operations is that they open up job opportunities for legal citizens.
For critics who insist that illegal aliens only take the jobs that Americans refuse to do, we remind them of the example in the news report below, where legal workers of all ages and backgrounds lined up for jobs at three Phoenix-area restaurants, after a major Arpaio raid removed 200 workers there:
Way to go, Joe!
Sheriff Joe is under attack by the Obama DOJ and is now a target of a recall effort by La Raza forces in Arizona: PLEASE CLICK HERE to Sign the Petition and Support this American Hero?
About John Hill
John Hill is the Executive Director of Stand With Arizona, one of the nation's largest organizations opposing illegal immigration and amnesty. SWA's members have been instrumental in passing legislation in states and counties around the U.S., and blocking the DREAM Act in 2010. Join us!
To the scientific way of looking at animals adapted by the Greco-Roman poets and philosophers, medieval Christianity added the dimension of science fiction?any and all agents of nature not to be trusted until or unless they had been baptized in the font of a symbol or herded into the cage of an allegory. In the illuminated pages of tenth-century bibles and the rose windows of Gothic cathedrals, the bee became a sign of hope, the crow and the goat both references to Satan, the fly indicative of lust, the lamb and the dove variant embodiments of Christ. Instead of remarking upon the extraordinary talents of certain animals, the holy fathers produced mythical beings, among them the dragon (huge, batwinged, fire breathing, barbed tail) and the unicorn (white body, blue eyes, the single horn on its forehead colored red at the tip).
Go back to the previous page ? Go to the Facebook homepage ? Visit the Help Center![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 1-Mar-2013
Share ] 
