Boycott appears to hit Rush Limbaugh's mega-deal

Rush Limbaugh denied that the advertiser boycott of his show after he called Sandra Fluke a slut would cost him anything, but a year later, it's clear that prediction wasn't true. It has, at the very least, cost him his relationship with the radio network giant Cumulus Media. Limbaugh's show is thinking of ending its contract with Cumulus at the end of the year, Politico's Dylan Byers reports. Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey has blamed Limbaugh for advertising losses, while Limbaugh thinks he's just making excuses. Either way, the Fluke controversy has clearly cost the radio host.

RELATED: 46 Advertisers Have Quit Limbaugh's Show

In an August earnings call, Dickey said the boycott had contributed to $5.5 million in losses at the top three of?Cumulus's 40 major radio stations nationwide, Byers reports. In a March earnings call, Dickey said Cumulus's radio business had suffered "due to some of the issues that happened a year ago." Limbaugh's allies think that's not fair. "It's a very serious discussion, because Dickey keeps blaming Rush for his own revenue problems," a Limbaugh show source told Byers, saying Dickey's talk stations underperform compared to comparable talk stations. ?

RELATED: Democrats See Gold in Limbaugh's 'Slut' Controversy

There is periodic outrage over the things Limbaugh says on his show, and Limbaugh himself references it all the time. "This is gonna?get me in trouble," is one of his favorite ways to introduce his political analysis. But while outrage over Limbaugh's politics hasn't hurt him, outrage over his creepiness has.?In February 2012, Sandra Fluke (left) argued at a Democratic congressional hearing that it was necessary for insurance policies to cover birth control. Limbaugh, who apparently did not know how the birth control pill works, said she wanted taxpayers to finance her sex life. Fluke "testifies she's having so much sex she can?t afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them," Limbaugh said. He explained:

"What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She?s having so much sex she can?t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We?re the pimps."

Some argued that the resulting liberal outrage would only strengthen Limbaugh. "Attempts to advance a left-wing media agenda by destroying Rush Limbaugh?s radio show will surely fail," Michael Medved argued last year. "Amid threats of a boycott, more than 98 companies have suspended their sponsorship of the Limbaugh show, but Rush and his associates insist (very plausibly) that many other firms have eagerly rushed in (you?ll pardon the expression) to fill the gap."?Limbaugh even rejected longtime advertiser Sleep Train when it wanted to comeback after suspending advertising during the controversy.?Today, whether Limbaugh's bosses are looking for "someone to blame" or not, it's clear Cumulus would like some of those people back.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ghost-sandra-fluke-haunting-rush-limbaughs-mega-deal-132905949.html

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The Most Bogus Argument Against New Gun Laws

As both sides in the gun debate mobilize for a possible second act on Capitol Hill, could we please retire the argument that taking step X on guns wouldn?t have prevented tragedy Y?

That talking point has been a recurring theme in the gun debate, from Republican Sen. Charles Grassley to Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to the National Rifle Association. It even informed Sen. Kelly Ayotte?s response last week to Erin Lafferty, whose mother was shot to death in December at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. ?As you and I both know, the issue wasn?t a background check system issue at Sandy Hook,? Ayotte said at a town meeting in Warren, N.H., defending her vote against the Manchin-Toomey bill adding a background-check requirement for sales at gun shows and online.

Yet arguments like that ignore the fact that Step X ? whether it?s expanded background checks or other proposals before Congress -- might well have helped prevent or mitigate some horrendous past incident, and could spare us future tragedies.

For instance, expanded background checks might have saved the life of Ricky Byrdsong, the former Northwestern University basketball coach killed by white supremacist Benjamin Nathan Smith in 1999. Smith tried to buy a gun from a licensed dealer in June 1999 but was blocked because of a domestic violence restraining order against him. The next month he bought one from an unlicensed dealer and used it to target blacks, Asians and orthodox Jews in a three-day, multi-city rampage. Nine were wounded and two died, among them Byrdsong, who was shot multiple times while walking with two of his children.

And, yes, expanded background checks might have kept Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold from killing 13 people and themselves in the 1999 Columbine massacre. Three of the four guns the two 17-year-olds used in the shootings were purchased for them at a gun show by Robyn Anderson, then 18. ?I would not have bought a gun for Eric and Dylan if I had had to give any personal information or submit to any kind of check at all,? Anderson said in a statement in 2000. ?I wish a law requiring background checks had been in effect at the time.?

An expanded background check system is only as good as its database. New proposed federal laws and President Obama?s executiveactions are aimed at making sure that mental illness is better detected, reported and treated, and that states have the money to enter mental health adjudications, felony records and domestic violence restraining orders into the system. In fact, the Manchin-Toomey plan would have given states grants to upgrade their databases.

Would this be helpful? Ask the survivors of 32 people killed six years ago at Virginia Tech. Seung-Hui Cho, the shooter, was mentally ill and had been adjudicated as dangerous. But his records weren?t entered into the system, so he passed a background check. Virginia fixed its reporting system, but many states still have gaps.

Some pundits, lawmakers and advocates, topped by the NRA, have argued it would be pointless to limit the size of ammunition magazines. Yet past incidents suggest such limits could make a difference. In 1998, Kip Kinkel emptied a 50-round clip at Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., killing two students and injuring 25. When he stopped to reload, several students wrestled him to the ground.

Adam Lanza brought 10 magazines of 30 rounds each into Sandy Hook Elementary School last December. Parents there say 11 children may have escaped when he had to stop to reload. In Tucson in 2011, shooter Jared Loughner was tackled and his gun wrested from him as he tried to reload after firing 31 bullets in a matter of seconds. If his clip had been limited to 10 rounds, Christina Taylor Green might be alive today. She was killed at age 9 by Loughner?s 13^th bullet.

Brian Malte, national policy director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says there?s no single way to head off shootings, which is why most gun-control advocates support a wide range of steps. The starting point for all of them is a background check system that covers as many gun purchases as possible. That is how ineligible people can be identified and denied a gun. It?s also the foundation for enforcement of state laws like those in California, which limit handgun purchases to one a month (helpful in discouraging trafficking) and require a waiting period before purchase (helpful in preventing suicides).

Newtown parents are aware that a better background check system would not have kept guns away from Lanza, whose mother had a huge cache of weapons and ammunition in their home. But they and others involved in the push for expanded background checks and other new laws are looking toward the future, not the past. ?They don?t want what happened to them to happen to somebody else,? says Malte. ?That?s the overriding factor.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/most-bogus-argument-against-gun-laws-050009341.html

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New device can extract human DNA with full genetic data in minutes

May 6, 2013 ? Take a swab of saliva from your mouth and within minutes your DNA could be ready for analysis and genome sequencing with the help of a new device.

University of Washington engineers and NanoFacture (http://nano-facture.com/), a Bellevue, Wash., company, have created a device that can extract human DNA from fluid samples in a simpler, more efficient and environmentally friendly way than conventional methods.

The device will give hospitals and research labs a much easier way to separate DNA from human fluid samples, which will help with genome sequencing, disease diagnosis and forensic investigations.

"It's very complex to extract DNA," said Jae-Hyun Chung, a UW associate professor of mechanical engineering who led the research. "When you think of the current procedure, the equivalent is like collecting human hairs using a construction crane."

This technology aims to clear those hurdles. The small, box-shaped kit now is ready for manufacturing, then eventual distribution to hospitals and clinics. NanoFacture, a UW spinout company, signed a contract with Korean manufacturer KNR Systems last month at a ceremony in Olympia, Wash.

The UW, led by Chung, spearheaded the research and invention of the technology, and still manages the intellectual property.

Separating DNA from bodily fluids is a cumbersome process that's become a bottleneck as scientists make advances in genome sequencing, particularly for disease prevention and treatment. The market for DNA preparation alone is about $3 billion each year.

Conventional methods use a centrifuge to spin and separate DNA molecules or strain them from a fluid sample with a micro-filter, but these processes take 20 to 30 minutes to complete and can require excessive toxic chemicals.

UW engineers designed microscopic probes that dip into a fluid sample -- saliva, sputum or blood -- and apply an electric field within the liquid. That draws particles to concentrate around the surface of the tiny probe. Larger particles hit the tip and swerve away, but DNA-sized molecules stick to the probe and are trapped on the surface. It takes two or three minutes to separate and purify DNA using this technology.

"This simple process removes all the steps of conventional methods," Chung said.

The hand-held device can clean four separate human fluid samples at once, but the technology can be scaled up to prepare 96 samples at a time, which is standard for large-scale handling.

The tiny probes, called microtips and nanotips, were designed and built at the UW in a micro-fabrication facility where a technician can make up to 1 million tips in a year, which is key in proving that large-scale production is feasible, Chung said.

Engineers in Chung's lab also have designed a pencil-sized device using the same probe technology that could be sent home with patients or distributed to those serving in the military overseas. Patients could swab their cheeks, collect a saliva sample, then process their DNA on the spot to send back to hospitals and labs for analysis. This could be useful as efforts ramp up toward sequencing each person's genome for disease prevention and treatment, Chung said.

The market for this device isn't developed yet, but Chung's team will be ready when it is. Meanwhile, the larger device is ready for commercialization, and its creators have started working with distributors.

A UW Center for Commercialization grant of $50,000 seeded initial research in 2008, and since then researchers have received about $2 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Sang-gyeun Ahn, a UW assistant professor of industrial design, crafted the prototype.

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/h-_EnMAFYVk/130506132100.htm

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Well it looks like The Onion's Twitter feed got hacked today by the Syrian Electronic Army, although

Well it looks like The Onion's Twitter feed got hacked today by the Syrian Electronic Army, although the only dead give-away when a satirical site like that gets hacked is that their fake news stop being funny. Sounds like it's finally time for Twitter to start using that two-factor authentication system.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/well-it-looks-like-the-onions-twitter-feed-got-hacked-t-493158547

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