Jan. 30, 2013 ? A pair of University of Colorado Cancer Center studies published this month show that the milk thistle extract, silibinin, kills skin cells mutated by UVA radiation and protects against damage by UVB radiation -- thus protecting against UV-induced skin cancer and photo-aging.
"When you have a cell affected by UV radiation, you either want to repair it or kill it so that it cannot go on to cause cancer. We show that silibinin does both," says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, co-program leader of Cancer Prevention and Control at the CU Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The first study, published in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology worked with human skin cells subjected to UVA radiation, which makes up about 95 percent of the sun's radiation that reaches Earth. The Agarwal Lab treated these UVA-affected cells with silibinin. With silibinin, the rate at which these damaged cells died increased dramatically.
"When you take human skin cells -- keratinocytes -- and treat them with silibinin, nothing happens. It's not toxic. But when you damage these cells with UVA radiation, treatment with silibinin kills the cells," Agarwal says, thus removing the mutated cells that can cause skin cancer and photo-aging.
Specifically, the study shows that pretreatment with silibinin resulted in higher release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within the UVA-exposed cells, leading to higher rates of cell death.
The second study, published this month by the same authors in the journal Molecular Carcinogenesis shows that instead of beneficially killing cells damaged by UVA radiation, treatment with silibinin protects human skill cells from damage by UVB radiation, which makes up about 5 percent of the sun's radiation reaching Earth.
Again, remember Agarwal's suggestion that the prevention of UV-induced skin cancer can happen in two ways: by protecting against DNA damage or by killing cells with damaged DNA. With UVA, silibinin kills; with UVB, it protects, in this case by increasing cells' expression of the protein interleukin-12, which works to quickly repair damaged cells.
"It has been 20 years of work with this compound, silibinin," Agarwal says. "We first noticed its effectiveness in treating both skin and solid cancers, and we now have a much more complete picture of the mechanisms that allow this compound to work."
Agarwal and colleagues continue to test the effectiveness of silibinin in cancer prevention and treatment in cell lines and mouse models, and are working toward human trials of silibinin-based therapeutics.
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 University of Colorado Denver. The original article was written by Garth Sundem.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Sreekanth Narayanapillai, Chapla Agarwal, Gagan Deep, Rajesh Agarwal. Silibinin inhibits ultraviolet B radiation-induced DNA-damage and apoptosis by enhancing interleukin-12 expression in JB6 cells and SKH-1 hairless mouse skin. Molecular Carcinogenesis, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/mc.22000
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.
The Immigration and Refugee Board Member Alicia Seifert was quoted by Canada's public broadcaster as saying Gary Peters was "complicit in war crimes."
Ms Seifert pointed to Peters' role in an alleged scheme to sneak Saadi Gaddafi and his family into Mexico with false documents at the height of pro-democracy protests in Libya in 2011.
A Canadian woman, along with a Danish citizen and two Mexicans, were charged by Mexican authorities last January with attempted trafficking of undocumented people, organised crime and falsifying official documents in the case.
Peters admitted to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that he continued to work for Saadi Gaddafi after the United Nations imposed sanctions against the Libyan regime in 2011, but insists he was careful not to break any laws.
He has 15 days to seek a judicial review of the Immigration and Refugee Board decision or ask Canada's immigration minister to quash the order on humanitarian grounds because he has a Canadian wife and children.
Jan. 28, 2013 ? Research by U.S. Forest Service scientists forecasts profound changes over the next 50 years in the summer range of the endangered Indiana bat. In an article published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, Forest Service Southern Research Station researchers Susan Loeb and Eric Winters discuss the findings of one of the first studies designed to forecast the responses of a temperate zone bat species to climate change.
The researchers modeled the current maternity distribution of Indiana bats and then modeled future distributions based on four different climate change scenarios. "We found that due to projected changes in temperature, the most suitable summer range for Indiana bats would decline and become concentrated in the northeastern United States and the Appalachian Mountains," says SRS research ecologist Loeb. "The western part of the range (Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio) -- currently considered the heart of Indiana bat maternity range -- would become unsuitable under most climates that we modeled. This has important implications for managers in the Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains as these areas will most likely serve as climatic refuges for these animals when other parts of the range become too warm."
In general, bat species in temperate zones such as Indiana bats may be more sensitive than many other groups of mammals to climate change because their reproductive cycles, hibernation patterns, and migration are closely tied to temperature. Indiana bat populations were in decline for decades due to multiple factors, including the destruction of winter hibernation sites and loss of summer maternity habitat.
Due to conservation efforts, researchers saw an increase in Indiana bat populations in 2000 to 2005, but with the onset of white-nose syndrome populations are declining again, with the number of Indiana bats reported hibernating in the northeastern United States down by 72 percent in 2011. The study predicts even more declines due to temperature rises from climate change, with much of the western portion of the current range forecast to be unsuitable for maternity habitat by 2060.
"Our model suggests that once average summer (May through August) maximum temperatures reach 27.4?C (81.3?F), the climatic suitability of the area for Indiana bat maternity colonies declines," says Loeb. "Once they reach 29.9?C (85.8?F), the area is forecast to become completely unsuitable. Initially, Indiana bat maternity colonies may respond to warming temperatures by choosing roosts that have more shade than the roosts that they currently use. Eventually, it is likely that they will have to find more suitable climates."
The models the researchers produced provide resource managers guidance on areas that are likely to contain maternity colonies now and in the future, depending on the availability of suitable habitat in those areas. "Managers in the western parts of the range should be aware of the potential changes in summer distributions due to climate change and not assume that declines are due to habitat loss or degradation," says Loeb. "Management actions that foster high reproductive success and survival will be critical for the conservation and recovery of the species."
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 USDA Forest Service ? Southern Research Station.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Susan C. Loeb, Eric A. Winters. Indiana bat summer maternity distribution: effects of current and future climates. Ecology and Evolution, 2012; 3 (1): 103 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.440
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007 file photo, a lettuce worker washes romaine lettuce in Salinas, Calif. Leafy green vegetables were the leading source of food poisoning over an 11-year period, federal health officials say, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. However, the most food-related deaths were from contaminated chicken and other poultry. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007 file photo, a lettuce worker washes romaine lettuce in Salinas, Calif. Leafy green vegetables were the leading source of food poisoning over an 11-year period, federal health officials say, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. However, the most food-related deaths were from contaminated chicken and other poultry. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2007 file photo, a worker harvests romaine lettuce in Salinas, Calif. Leafy green vegetables were the leading source of food poisoning over an 11-year period, federal health officials say, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. However, the most food-related deaths were from contaminated chicken and other poultry. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
NEW YORK (AP) ? A big government study has fingered leafy greens like lettuce and spinach as the leading source of food poisoning, a perhaps uncomfortable conclusion for health officials who want us to eat our vegetables.
"Most meals are safe," said Dr. Patricia Griffin, a government researcher and one of the study's authors who said the finding shouldn't discourage people from eating produce. Experts repeated often-heard advice: Be sure to wash those foods or cook them thoroughly.
While more people may have gotten sick from plants, more died from contaminated poultry, the study also found. The results were released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans ? or 48 million people? gets sick from food poisoning. That includes 128,000 hospitalization and 3,000 deaths, according to previous CDC estimates.
The new report is the most comprehensive CDC has produced on the sources of food poisoning, covering the years 1998 through 2008. It reflects the agency's growing sophistication at monitoring illnesses and finding their source.
What jumped out at the researchers was the role fruits and vegetables played in food poisonings, said Griffin, who heads the CDC office that handles foodborne infection surveillance and analysis.
About 1 in 5 illnesses were linked to leafy green vegetables ? more than any other type of food. And nearly half of all food poisonings were attributed to produce in general, when illnesses from other fruits and vegetables were added in.
It's been kind of a tough month for vegetables. A controversy erupted when Taco Bell started airing a TV ad for its variety 12-pack of tacos, with a voiceover saying that bringing a vegetable tray to a football party is "like punting on fourth-and-1." It said that people secretly hate guests who bring vegetables to parties.
The fast-food chain on Monday announced it was pulling the commercial after receiving complaints that it discouraged people from eating vegetables.
Without actually saying so, the CDC report suggests that the Food and Drug Administration should devote more staff time and other resources to inspection of fruits and vegetables, said Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety.
Earlier this month, the FDA released a proposed new rule for produce safety that would set new hygiene standards for farm workers and for trying to reduce contact with animal waste and dirty water.
Meanwhile, CDC officials emphasized that their report should not be seen as discouraging people from eating vegetables.
Many of the vegetable-related illnesses come from norovirus, which is often spread by cooks and food handlers. So contamination sometimes has more to do with the kitchen or restaurant it came from then the food itself, Griffin noted.
Also, while vegetable-related illnesses were more common, they were not the most dangerous. The largest proportion of foodborne illness deaths ? about 1 in 5 ? were due to poultry. That was partly because three big outbreaks more than 10 years ago linked to turkey deli meat.
But it was close. CDC estimated 277 poultry-related deaths in 1998-2008, compared to 236 vegetable-related deaths.
Fruits and nuts were credited with 96 additional deaths, making 334 total deaths for produce of all types. The CDC estimated 417 deaths from all kinds of meat and poultry, another 140 from dairy and 71 from eggs.
Red meat was once seen as one of the leading sources of food poisoning, partly because of a deadly outbreak of E. coli associated with hamburger. But Griffin and Doyle said there have been significant safety improvements in beef handling. In the study, beef was the source of fewer than 4 percent of food-related deaths and fewer than 7 percent of illnesses.
A trio of respected biologists and zoologists concludes that Earth's sixth mass extinction may be unfolding slower than feared, giving time for the valuable work of cataloging the planet's species.
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / January 25, 2013
This file photo shows two jaguar cubs born at the Milwaukee County Zoo in November. Jaguars are an endangered species.
Milwaukee County Zoo/AP
Enlarge
For years, ecologists and biologists have warned that the planet is sliding into a mass extinction event comparable to the one that did in the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
But Earth?s species may not be vanishing as fast as previously believed ? providing a fresh opportunity to catalog and conserve more of them before global warming and habitat loss take a higher toll on the planet?s biodiversity.
That's the conclusion a trio of respected biologists and zoologists has reached after reviewing recent studies on extinction, the pace at which new species are being reported, estimates of undiscovered species, and the human and technological capital available for building the catalog.
When it comes to discovering and preserving biodiversity, "things aren't hopeless," says Mark Costello, a University of Auckland marine zoologist and the lead author of the analysis, which appeared in this week?s issue of Science.
Three years ago, another, larger team of biologists and zoologists estimated that if collectively countries devoted $500 million to $1 billion a year to the project of cataloging nonbacterial life on Earth, the project could be complete within 50 years.
Dr. Costello and colleagues renew that call. And their lower estimate of the number of species and a higher estimate of the people available than many thought implies the job could be done more quickly.
The stakes are high, many researchers say. Human population growth and activities ? from altering landscapes and oceans to altering climate ? are widely seen as the drivers behind the current mass-extinction event, the planet?s sixth.
"We are the asteroid," says Michael Novacek, provost and curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, referring to the event widely held to have triggered the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
"This may be the most important century in our evolutionary history, where the environment is really transformed to a level where the nature of life on Earth is redefined," says Dr. Novacek, who was not part of the team performing the new analysis.
Getting a handle on the full range of nonbacterial species the planet hosts is important for a number of reasons, researchers say. A full listing of what lives where would provide important information for maintaining the health of ecosystems on which humans rely for food, clean water, and other so-called ecosystem services. And undiscovered species could represent new sources of compounds for pharmaceuticals or appear as novel structures human engineers could mimic for lighter, stronger materials.
At its broadest, the widespread loss of biodiversity before anyone has a chance to take the full measure of what's out there makes it difficult to fully grasp the ecological consequences of its loss.
Novacek and others say they are a bit surprised at the relatively low number of nonbacterial species the team estimates as living on the planet ? about half the 10 million that others estimate as realistic. And the trio's estimate for a global extinction rate ? less than 1 percent per decade ? is far below the worst-case scenario of 5 percent per decade some have estimated.
Still, Costello and colleagues acknowledge that if extinction rates are on the high side, say 5 percent per decade, half the 5 million nonbacterial species he and his colleagues estimate as currently inhabiting Earth will have vanished within 150 years.
FIRST PERSON | The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine published the results of a recent study that shows a link between low vitamin Dserum levels and premenopausal breast cancer. Women with low vitamin D serum levels are at a greatly increased risk for breast cancer. The study looked at 1,200 blood samples before coming to this conclusion. I wish that this information was known several years ago. My vitamin D serum levels were extremely low at the time of my breast cancer diagnosis. It appears that Sharif B. Mohr, Ph. D et al, are onto something.
The study
A total of 1,200 blood samples were examined for this study. 600 of the samples were from women who developed breast cancer and 600 were from women who stayed cancer-free. After examining the samples, researchers concluded that premenopausal women with low vitamin D serum levels three months before diagnosis had three times the risk of getting breast cancer than those with the highest blood serum levels.
Researchers say that although they do not completely understand the role vitamin D plays in the development of breast cancer, it is believed that it has to do with the tumor's ability to form blood vessels. Prior studies with a time frame of greater than 90 days have not shown a conclusive link between vitamin D and breast cancer risk.
To me, this all makes sense and low vitamin D levels may have caused my breast cancer. I have several risk factors, like drinking alcohol and being above my ideal weight. Bloodwork done after my biopsy showed very low levels of vitamin D. This might have been the catalyst needed to set breast cancer in motion.
The good news is that it is very easy to find out if you are deficient in vitamin D. Ask your physician to order a blood test to screen for vitamin D levels. If your serum level is less than ideal, a simple supplement can bring it back up.
The researchers concluded that women with vitamin D blood serum levels of 50 ng/ml or higher reduced their risk of breast cancer by 50 percent. Had I known this earlier, maybe I could have avoided getting this awful disease.
Lynda Altman was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011. She writes a series for Yahoo! Shine called "My Battle With Breast Cancer."
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chances of retaining power are getting "smaller and smaller" every day, according to the transcript of an interview with CNN released by Medvedev's office on Sunday.
His remarks were the most vocal Russian statement that Assad's days could be numbered. But he reiterated calls for talks between the government and its foes and repeated Moscow's position that Assad must not be pushed out by external forces.
"I think that with every day, every week and every month the chances of his preservation are getting smaller and smaller," Medvedev was quoted as saying. "But I repeat, again, this must be decided by the Syrian people. Not Russia, not the United States, not any other country.
"The task for the United States, the Europeans and regional powers ... is to sit the parties down for negotiations, and not just demand that Assad go and then be executed like (the late former Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi or be carried to court sessions on a stretcher like (Egypt's) Hosni Mubarak."
Russia has been Assad's most important ally throughout the 22-month-old Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful street protests and evolved into an armed uprising against his rule.
Moscow has blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at pushing him out or pressuring him to end the bloodshed, which has killed more than 60,000 people. But Russia has also distanced itself from Assad by saying it is not trying to prop him up and will not offer him asylum.
Medvedev made some of Russia's harshest criticism of Assad to date, placing equal blame for the escalation into a civil war on "the leadership of the country and the irreconcilable opposition". He also said Assad was far too slow to implement promised political reforms.
FATAL MISTAKE
"He should have done everything much faster, attracting part of the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him, to his side," Medvedev was quoted as saying. "This was his significant mistake, and possibly a fatal one."
The wording of the interview suggested it was not just Assad's grip on power that was under threat, but his life. Medvedev's remark about the chances of his "preservation" diminishing came when he was asked whether Assad could survive.
Russia has repeatedly called on Western and Arab nations to put more pressure on Assad's foes to seek a negotiated solution, but Medvedev acknowledged that Moscow's influence on the Syrian president is limited.
"I have personally called Assad several times and said: conduct reforms, hold negotiations," said Medvedev, who was Russia's president until last May. "In my view, unfortunately, the Syrian leadership is not ready for this.
"But on the other hand, by no means should a situation be allowed in which the current political elite is swept away by armed actions, because then the civil war will last for decades," he said.
Russia has given frequent indications it is preparing for Assad's possible exit, while continuing to insist he must not be forced out by foreign powers.
Russia sells arms to Syria and uses a naval facility on the Mediterranean coast that is its only military base outside the former Soviet Union.
But analysts say its policy is driven mainly by President Vladimir Putin's desire to prevent the United States from using military force or support from the U.N. Security Council to bring down governments it opposes.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- The cost of a gallon of gas in Maine has jumped nearly three cents in the past week.
Price-monitoring website MaineGasPrices.com reports Monday that the average retail cost of a gallon of gas rose to $3.55. The price is based on a survey of more than 1,200 gas stations in the state.
Even though the national average rose more than four cents in the same time span, the average price in Maine remains 24 cents higher per gallon.
Current prices in Maine are just about the same as they were a year ago.
A company analyst says prices are rising because this is traditionally refinery maintenance season, when production drops.
By Josh Halliday, The Guardian Sunday, January 27, 2013 13:40 EST
?
Google is facing a fresh privacy battle in the UK over its alleged secret tracking of the internet habits of millions of iPhone users.
An estimated 10 million Britons could have grounds to launch a privacy claim over the way Google circumvented Apple?s security settings on the iPhone, iPad and desktop versions of its Safari web browser to monitor their behaviour.
At least 10 British iPhone users have started legal proceedings and dozens more are being lined up, according to Dan Tench, the lawyer behind the action at the London-based firm Olswang.
?This is the first time Google has been threatened with a group claim over privacy in the UK,? Tench told the Guardian. ?It is particularly concerning how Google circumvented security settings to snoop on its users. One of the things about Google is that it is so ubiquitous in our lives and if that?s its approach then it?s quite concerning.?
A letter before action has been sent to Google executives in the US and UK on behalf of two users, including Judith Vidal-Hall, the privacy campaigner and former editor of Index on Censorship. Another 10 are preparing to launch proceedings, and plans are afoot for a group to form an umbrella privacy action.
The legal action comes just months after Google was hit with a $22.5m fine in the US over a privacy breach between summer 2011 and spring 2012.
Google has admitted it intentionally sidestepped security settings on Apple?s Safari web browser that blocked websites from tracking users through cookies ? data stored on users? computers that show which sites they have visited. Security researchers revealed in February 2012 that Google?s DoubleClick advertising network was intentionally stored these cookies on users? computers without their consent.
Although the legal bill for Google is likely to be small compared with last year?s profits of $10.7bn (?6.8bn), the damage will be significant given the millions of iPhone users in Britain at the time. The exact figure for compensation is not known and will depend on a number of factors.
Alexander Hanff, a privacy campaigner working on the legal claims, said: ?This group action is not about getting rich by suing Google, this lawsuit is about sending a very clear message to corporations that circumventing privacy controls will result in significant consequences. The lawsuit has the potential of costing Google tens of millions, perhaps even breaking ?100m in damages given the potential number of claimants ? making it the biggest group action ever launched in the UK.?
Lawyers for claimants in the UK have ordered Google to reveal how it used the private information it secretly obtained, how much personal data was taken, and for how long. It is understood the claimants are suing Google for breaches of confidence and breach of privacy, computer misuse and trespass, and breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.
News of the legal action was first reported by the Sunday Times. Vidal-Hall, who could not be reached by the Guardian, was quoted as saying Google was guilty of ?electronic stalking?. She added: ?It angers me that our data is either being sold or passed on to third parties.?
A Facebook group called Safari Users Against Google?s Secret Tracking has vowed to hold Google to account for the tracking. It said: ?Google deliberately undermined protections on the Safari browser so that they could track users? internet usage and to provide personally tailored advertising based on the sites previously visited. There was no way to know that Google did this. In fact, they made it clear that they did not do this on the Safari browser.?
It continued: ?It could mean for many users that surprises such as engagements, presents and holidays were destroyed when partners looked at their computers and saw display ads based on sites previously visited. There are many examples of the inappropriate consequences of such intrusion.?
Google is no stranger to damaging privacy battles, having being censured for snooping on Wi-Fi users with its StreetView cars and the failed launch of its email social network, Google Buzz.
Google declined to comment. A statement released by the company at the time of the $22.5m fine in July claimed it had ?collected no personal information? with the cookies.
In this Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, photo, CEO and President Mike Faith of Headsets.com checks his inventory in his offices in San Francisco. Headsets.com, might have to hire two staffers to handle the administrative work if what's called remote tax collection becomes law, says Faith. The company has operations in California and Tennessee, but sells to all 50 states. Currently, federal law only requires the company to collect tax in those two states. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Small-business owners may be closer to losing an advantage they?ve enjoyed during the e-commerce boom ? being exempt from collecting sales tax in states where they?re not located. And they?re worried they will have to spend more money in the process.
Under federal law, a state or local government cannot force a company to collect sales tax on a purchase unless the business has a physical presence in that state. The physical presence could range from an actual store to an office, warehouse or distribution center. The sale could be conducted online, over the phone or through mail-order.
The arrangement saves money for shoppers who use price comparison websites or mobile apps, and those who spend time surfing for the best overall deal.
But Washington lawmakers currently have several bills in the works that would end all that by forcing companies to collect the tax. Businesses are split over the issue.
On one side are small retailers who say they wouldn?t be able to bear the costs of collecting the tax and filing reports states and local governments require. They?re worried they?ll have to buy software, hire staffers and deal with the hassle of keeping up with collecting tax from states and thousands of municipalities.
Headsets.com, for instance, might have to hire two staffers to handle the administrative work if what?s called remote tax collection becomes law, says CEO Mike Faith. The company has operations in California and Tennessee, but sells to all 50 states. Currently, federal law only requires the company to collect tax in those two states.
Faith expects the law would force him to hire workers to help his San Francisco-based company comply with it. "It?s useless employment. It doesn?t add value to the company It?s just another cost burden."
On the other side are in-state sellers and larger retailers with physical locations dotted across the country who sometimes lose business to competitors who don?t have to collect the tax. Even if two retailers charge the same amount for an item, many shoppers choose the seller that doesn?t collect taxes.
"It?s a problem that needs to be addressed. It?s an un-level playing field," says David French, a National Retail Federation lobbyist.
And on yet another side, are state and local governments that stand to collect billions in uncollected revenue if a bill makes it through Congress. States have wanted the tax money for decades and are particularly anxious for it now because tax revenue is down following the recession. The payoff could be substantial. In 2012, there was as much as $11.4 billion in uncollected taxes on Internet sales alone, according to University of Tennessee researchers.
story continues below
State and local government officials have wanted to change the law for years, even before the catalog boom of the 1980s and the Internet boom of the ?90s.
Small-business owners have resisted along the way. They argue that the burden of keeping up with the estimated 15,000 different sales tax rates charged by the 7,500 to 9,600 jurisdictions made up of states, counties, cities and towns, is just too much.
They have a point. Knowing how much to tax, and where, can be complicated. For example, Elgin, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, is located in two counties, Cook and Kane. In Cook County, Elgin?s sales tax on general merchandise is 9.25 percent. In Kane, it?s 8.25 percent. The state?s base sales tax is 6.25 percent.
What is taxed also varies widely. In Massachusetts, baby oil is tax-free, but baby lotion and powder aren?t. In states including New York, there?s a tax on shipping charges on items. Others, including California, don?t charge if you get merchandise delivered by the U.S. Postal Service or delivery services like UPS and FedEx.
The effort to change the law intensified as the growth of the Internet increased and companies? out-of-state sales volume swelled. Many sellers felt protected by a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states could not force out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax. But the court, in effect, invited Congress to create a law that would give the states the authority to require that taxes be collected.
States have a lot of incentive to go after the revenue. The combined budgets of all the states had deficits of more than $100 billion a year from 2009 through 2012, primarily because of the drop in tax receipts during and after the recession, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an organization that studies tax issues.
Three separate bills were introduced in the last Congress that would authorize the states to require remote sellers to collect taxes. In the Senate, the Marketplace Fairness Act had bipartisan support but did not come to a vote. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., one of the bill?s sponsors, has told The Associated Press the bill was tabled because of concerns by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., about the burdens tax collection would place on companies in his state, where there is no sales tax.
Joyce Rosenberg covers small business for The Associated Press.
Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? The world should know with certainty by the middle of this year whether a subatomic particle discovered by scientists is a long-sought Higgs boson, the head of the world's largest atom smasher said Saturday.
Rolf Heuer, director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said he is confident that "towards the middle of the year, we will be there." By then, he said reams of data from the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border near Geneva should have been assessed.
The timing could also help Scottish physicist Peter Higgs win a Noble Prize, Heuer said in an interview with The Associated Press in the Swiss resort of Davos.
CERN's atom smasher helped scientists declare in July their discovery of a new subatomic particle that Heuer calls "very, very like" a Higgs boson, that promises a new realm of understanding the universe.
The machine, which has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to investigate dark matter, antimatter and the creation of the universe, is being put to rest early this year. The data from it, however, takes longer to analyze.
"Suppose the Higgs boson is a special snowflake. So you have to identify the snowflake, in a big snowstorm, in front of a background of snowfields," Heuer said by way of analogy. "That is very difficult. You need a tremendous amount of snowfall in order to identify the snowflakes and this is why it takes time."
He said the standard model of particle physics describes only 5 percent of the universe, which many theorize occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.
To explain how subatomic particles, such as electrons, protons and neutrons, were themselves formed, Higgs and others in the 1960s envisioned an energy field where particles interact with a key particle, the Higgs boson.
The idea was that other particles attract Higgs bosons and the more they attract, the bigger their mass will be. But a big question remains: Is this new particle a variation of the Higgs boson, or the same as the Higgs boson that was predicted?
The phrase "God particle," coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, is used by laymen, not physicists, more as an explanation for how the subatomic universe works than how it all started.
"Now, if there is a deviation in one of the properties of this Higgs boson, that means we open a new window, for example, hopefully into the part of the dark universe, the 95 percent of the unknown universe," said Heuer.
"If you find the deviation," he added, "that means if it is not the ? but a ? Higgs boson, then we might find a fantastic window into the dark universe so we would make another giant leap from the visible to the dark."
Evolution inspires more efficient solar cell designPublic release date: 25-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University
Geometric pattern maximizes time light is trapped in solar cell
The sun's energy is virtually limitless, but harnessing its electricity with today's single-crystal silicon solar cells is extremely expensive 10 times pricier than coal, according to some estimates. Organic solar cells polymer solar cells that use organic materials to absorb light and convert it into electricity could be a solution, but current designs suffer because polymers have less-than-optimal electrical properties.
Researchers at Northwestern University have now developed a new design for organic solar cells that could lead to more efficient, less expensive solar power. Instead of attempting to increase efficiency by altering the thickness of the solar cell's polymer layer a tactic that has preciously garnered mixed results the researchers sought to design the geometric pattern of the scattering layer to maximize the amount of time light remained trapped within the cell.
Using a mathematical search algorithm based on natural evolution, the researchers pinpointed a specific geometrical pattern that is optimal for capturing and holding light in thin-cell organic solar cells.
The resulting design exhibited a three-fold increase over the Yablonovitch Limit, a thermodynamic limit developed in the 1980s that statistically describes how long a photon can be trapped in a semiconductor.
A paper about the results, "Highly Efficient Light-Trapping Structure Design Inspired by Natural Evolution," was published January 3 in Scientific Reports, a publication of Nature.
In the newly designed organic solar cell, light first enters a 100-nanometer-thick "scattering layer," a geometrically-patterned dielectric layer designed to maximize the amount of light transmitted into the cell. The light is then transmitted to the active layer, where it is converted into electricity.
"We wanted to determine the geometry for the scattering layer that would give us optimal performance," said Cheng Sun, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-author of the paper. "But with so many possibilities, it's difficult to know where to start, so we looked to laws of natural selection to guide us."
The researchers employed a genetic algorithm, a search process that mimics the process of natural evolution, explained Wei Chen, Wilson-Cook Professor in Engineering Design and professor of mechanical engineering at McCormick and co-investigator of the research.
"Due to the highly nonlinear and irregular behavior of the system, you must use an intelligent approach to find the optimal solution," Chen said. "Our approach is based on the biologically evolutionary process of survival of the fittest."
The researchers began with dozens of random design elements, then "mated" and analyzed their offspring to determine their particular light-trapping performance. This process was carried out over more than 20 generations and also accounted for evolutionary principles of crossover and genetic mutation.
The resulting pattern will be fabricated with partners at Argonne National Laboratory.
###
Also co-authoring the paper were co-lead authors Chen Wang and Shuangcheng Yu, graduate students in McCormick's Department of Mechanical Engineering.
[ | 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.
Evolution inspires more efficient solar cell designPublic release date: 25-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University
Geometric pattern maximizes time light is trapped in solar cell
The sun's energy is virtually limitless, but harnessing its electricity with today's single-crystal silicon solar cells is extremely expensive 10 times pricier than coal, according to some estimates. Organic solar cells polymer solar cells that use organic materials to absorb light and convert it into electricity could be a solution, but current designs suffer because polymers have less-than-optimal electrical properties.
Researchers at Northwestern University have now developed a new design for organic solar cells that could lead to more efficient, less expensive solar power. Instead of attempting to increase efficiency by altering the thickness of the solar cell's polymer layer a tactic that has preciously garnered mixed results the researchers sought to design the geometric pattern of the scattering layer to maximize the amount of time light remained trapped within the cell.
Using a mathematical search algorithm based on natural evolution, the researchers pinpointed a specific geometrical pattern that is optimal for capturing and holding light in thin-cell organic solar cells.
The resulting design exhibited a three-fold increase over the Yablonovitch Limit, a thermodynamic limit developed in the 1980s that statistically describes how long a photon can be trapped in a semiconductor.
A paper about the results, "Highly Efficient Light-Trapping Structure Design Inspired by Natural Evolution," was published January 3 in Scientific Reports, a publication of Nature.
In the newly designed organic solar cell, light first enters a 100-nanometer-thick "scattering layer," a geometrically-patterned dielectric layer designed to maximize the amount of light transmitted into the cell. The light is then transmitted to the active layer, where it is converted into electricity.
"We wanted to determine the geometry for the scattering layer that would give us optimal performance," said Cheng Sun, assistant professor of mechanical engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and co-author of the paper. "But with so many possibilities, it's difficult to know where to start, so we looked to laws of natural selection to guide us."
The researchers employed a genetic algorithm, a search process that mimics the process of natural evolution, explained Wei Chen, Wilson-Cook Professor in Engineering Design and professor of mechanical engineering at McCormick and co-investigator of the research.
"Due to the highly nonlinear and irregular behavior of the system, you must use an intelligent approach to find the optimal solution," Chen said. "Our approach is based on the biologically evolutionary process of survival of the fittest."
The researchers began with dozens of random design elements, then "mated" and analyzed their offspring to determine their particular light-trapping performance. This process was carried out over more than 20 generations and also accounted for evolutionary principles of crossover and genetic mutation.
The resulting pattern will be fabricated with partners at Argonne National Laboratory.
###
Also co-authoring the paper were co-lead authors Chen Wang and Shuangcheng Yu, graduate students in McCormick's Department of Mechanical Engineering.
[ | 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.
CAIRO (AP) ? An Egyptian court sentenced 21 people to death Saturday on charges related to one of the world's deadliest incidents of soccer violence, touching off an attempted jailbreak and a riot that killed another eight in the Mediterranean port city that is home to most of the defendants.
The verdict follows deadly clashes between police and demonstrators on Friday, the second anniversary of the uprising that overthrew longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. Such cycles of violence, often lasting for weeks and costing dozens of lives, have occurred regularly over the past two years.
Die-hard soccer fans from both teams, known as Ultras, hold the police at least partially responsible for the Port Said deaths and criticize Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi for doing little to reform the force. Al-Ahly Ultras in particular has been at the forefront of protests. But anger also is boiling in Port Said, where residents say they have been unfairly scapegoated.
Immediately after the verdict, two police were shot dead outside Port Said's main prison when angry relatives tried to storm the facility to free the defendants. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, as well as live rounds, at the crowd outside the prison, killing six, security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Security officials said the military is being deployed to Port Said ? the second such deployment in less than 24 hours. The army was widely used to keep order by top generals who took over after Mubarak, but the military has kept a much lower profile since Morsi was elected as president in June.
The military was also deployed overnight in the city of Suez after eight people died in clashes between security forces and protesters opposed to Morsi. Another protester was killed in Ismailiya, and security officials told the state new agency MENA that two policemen were killed in Friday's protests, bringing the death toll on the second anniversary of Egypt's uprising to 11.
Judge Sobhi Abdel-Maguid read out the death sentences related to the Feb. 1 riot in Port Said that killed 74 fans of the Cairo-based Al-Ahly team. Defendants' lawyers said all those sentenced were fans of the Port Said team, Al-Masry. Executions in Egypt are usually carried out by hanging.
The judge Saturday said in his statement read live on state TV that he would announce the verdict for the remaining 52 defendants on March 9.
Among those on trial are nine security officials, but none were handed sentences Saturday, lawyers and security officials say.
Fans of al-Ahly, whose stands were attacked by rival club Al-Masry in the Feb. 1 incident in Port Said, had promised more violence if the accused did not receive death sentences. In the days leading up to the verdict, Al-Ahly fans warned of bloodshed and "retribution". Hundreds of Al-Ahly fans gathered outside the Cairo sports club in anticipation of the verdict, chanting against the police and the government.
Before the judge could read out the names of the 21, families erupted in screams of "Allahu Akbar!" Arabic for God is great, with their hands in the air and waving pictures of the deceased. One man fainted while others hugged one another. The judge smacked the bench several times to try and contain reaction in the courtroom.
"This was necessary," said Nour al-Sabah, whose 17 year-old son Ahmed Zakaria died in the melee. "Now I want to see the guys when they are executed with my own eyes, just as they saw the murder of my son."
The verdict is not expected to calm tensions between the two rival teams. The judge is expected to make public his reasons for the death sentences March 9, when the remaining 52 defendants receive their sentences.
A Port Said resident and lawyer of one of the defendants given a death sentence said the verdict was nothing more than "a political decision to calm the public."
"There is nothing to say these people did anything and we don't understand what this verdict is based on," Mohammed al-Daw told The Associated Press by telephone.
"Our situation in Port Said is very grave because kids were taken from their homes for wearing green T-shirts," he said, referring to the Al-Masry team color.
The violence began after the Port Said's home team won the match, 3-1. Al-Masry fans stormed the pitch after the game ended, attacking Cairo's Al-Ahly fans.
Authorities shut off the stadium lights, plunging it into darkness. In the exit corridor, the fleeing crowd pressed against a chained gate until it broke open. Many were crushed under the crowd of people trying to flee.
Survivors of the riot described a nightmarish scene in the stadium. Police stood by doing nothing, they said, as fans of Al-Masry attacked supporters of the top Cairo club stabbing them and throwing them off bleachers.
Al-Ahly survivors said supporters of Al-Masry carved the words "Port Said" into their bodies and undressed them while beating them with iron bars.
While there has long been bad blood between the two rival teams, many blamed police for failing to perform usual searches for weapons at the stadium.
Both Al-Ahly Ultras and Al-Masry Ultras widely believe that ex-members of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak helped instigate the attack, and that the police at the very least were responsible for gross negligence. It is not clear what kind of evidence, if any, was presented to the court to back up claims that the attack had been orchestrated by regime officials.
"The police are thugs!" yelled relatives of the deceased inside the courtroom before the judge took the bench.
As is customary in Egypt, the death sentences will be sent to the nation's top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for approval, though the court has final say on the matter.
All of the defendants ? who were not present in the courtroom Saturday for security reasons ? have the right to appeal the verdict.
The melee was the world's deadliest soccer violence in 15 years.
The Ultras are proud of their hatred for the police, who were the backbone of Mubarak's authoritarian rule. They then then directed their chants against the military rulers who took over after Mubarak's ouster.
Ultras from several Egyptian sports clubs were engaged in deadly clashes with police near the Interior Ministry headquarters in Cairo that killed 42 people less than three months before the soccer melee in Port Said.
Back in August, we wrote about the launch of a startup non-profit organization called Watsi, which offers anyone and everyone the opportunity to fund ?low-cost, high impact treatment? for those who lack access to necessary care. Again, considering the fact that there are more than one billion people who are unable to afford adequate medical services (or don?t have access to them), Watsi?s mission has enormous (global) implications. And, honestly, it?s a pleasure to see a startup tackling such a big problem, in spite of the fact that it?s inherently complex, thorny and nearly impossible to solve.
Today, we?ve learned that Watsi also caught the attention of Paul Graham and the Y Combinator crew. In a post published this morning, the YC co-founder says that he (like us) discovered Chase Adams? venture as part of a discussion on Hacker News. ?After about 30 seconds of looking at the site,? he says, the ?revolutionary? potential became clear. As a result, Watsi is officially the first non-profit that Y Combinator has funded and accelerated to date as part of YC?s 2012/13 program.
For those unfamiliar, Watsi is crowdfunding for a good cause, a Kickstarter for funding quality medical care in third-world countries ? applying that familiar model to global healthcare. The platform allows donors to be able to make direct, personal connections with their beneficiaries (donating as little as $5 or as much as they want) in an attempt to put a face on what can be very inhuman and impersonal statistics around global healthcare (or the lack thereof).
Like Kickstarter?s businesses, each person has his or her own profile which includes pictures and a synopsis of the person, describes their condition, what they need, where they?re from and so on. Again, while there have been scams that have operated on similar premises before, Watsi is the real deal and isn?t just out to make a buck.
Founder Chase Adam tells us that Watsi is hoping to fight the traditionally high costs of healthcare by working with doctors, providers and payors (when they exist) to donate their time, research, materials and equipment to reduce overhead. In turn, because the procedures sought by Watsi campaigns take place abroad, they tend not to have the same cost one would find in the U.S., and thus, they don?t have to raise the same amount.
What?s more, as Graham describes in his post, peer-to-peer fundraising channels have the tendency to be disruptive when introduced to unfamiliar spaces and markets. Although it takes work and the willingness to set the bar high (in spite of regulatory friction, legacy infrastructure, distribution, pay channels, etc), it also can come with a ?much higher level of transparency.?
Watsi offers 100 percent of the donations it collects from the crowd to the person in need (specifically to fund their medical treatments), thanks in part to Watsi.org being funded separately. Graham also says that the startup is paying ?all their operational costs from their own funding, and none from your donations,? and in turn, even stomach credit card processing fees. A noble gesture in its own right.
That, in practice means, that more of your money goes to people in need, not to funding the administrative costs of the company itself, or towards grabby hands in between. It?s the same theory behind Crowdtilt?s (another YC company) move to support non-profit organizations (and tax-deductible donations) on its crowdfunding platform.
It?s great to see the Y Combinator partners so excited about giving back. ?I?ve never been so excited about anything we?ve funded,? Graham concludes. And Harj Taggar just had this to say, via tweet:
What?s more, since we last covered Watsi in August, we?ve learned that the company has been building some solid early traction. The platform has funded 75 treatments thus far, raised about $60,000 for patients, received 1,300 donations and is now operating in eight countries. In all, Adams tells us that 20 percent have donors have already returned to donate for a second time and 30 percent of giving is coming from outside the U.S. and that Watsi is currently seeing about 28 percent average week-over-week growth. Pretty impressive for five months of work. Stay tuned for more.
Go check out Watsi here, in PG?s post here and find a more extensive background in our prior coverage here.
Y Combinator is a venture fund which focuses on seed investments to startup companies. It offers financing as well as business consulting along with other opportunities to 2-4 person companies looking to take an idea to a product. Y Combinator looks for companies with ?good? ideas over companies with experience and a business model. The company made its first investments in Summer 2005. Y Combinator selects companies to finance and consult with twice a year. They are located in...
? Learn more
Watsi is an online peer-to-peer crowdfunding platform that allows users to fund life-changing medical treatments for underserved people in developing countries. Watsi is a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
It?s basic economics: An increase in the supply of a product coupled with a decrease in demand results in a drop in price.
But that isn?t happening with oil.
Since 2008, oil production in the United States has surged a stunning 28 percent as the controversial practice of fracking unlocks new supplies in North Dakota and Texas. At the same time, use of oil and petroleum products has fallen 4 percent, as Americans switch to more efficient cars.
In theory at least, both of those factors should have pushed the price of crude down. Instead, it?s gone up.
Since bottoming out during the financial crisis, oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange have nearly tripled in value, climbing from $33.87 per barrel in December 2008 to roughly $95 this month. Although $33.87 was an aberration, a temporary low brought on by economic collapse, oil still costs substantially more now than it did in 2007, before the recession began.
The high price illustrates a brutal truth of today?s interconnected world ? oil is a global commodity, bought and sold in a global marketplace. Even while demand falls in the United States, it?s growing in countries such as China and India. And it?s growing fast enough there that booming oil production in the United States can?t keep pace.
?You?re seeing record world demand growth, but supply is not keeping up so much,? said John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute. ?It?s a world price. We?re a part of it, but only a part of it.?
Critics say the price paradox undercuts the oil industry?s efforts to drill in more of America?s public lands and coastal waters. Doing so, they say, won?t necessarily help Americans at the gas pump. Indeed, gasoline prices in California set records last year, with the statewide average hitting $4.67 per gallon.
Price myth
?It really debunks the myth of ?Drill, baby, drill,? that if we just produce more oil, prices will stay low or go lower,? said Michael Marx, director of the Sierra Club?s Beyond Oil campaign.
Higher domestic production has had a small effect on U.S. oil prices ? just not enough to keep them from rising.
Much of the new oil comes from North Dakota and flows into pipelines in the Midwest. But the lines that connect the Midwest to export terminals on the Gulf Coast can?t carry all the additional crude. The result has been a glut of petroleum in one particular place, the pipeline hub of Cushing, Okla. And Cushing is the delivery point for the oil contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
So the price of those contracts, for West Texas Intermediate crude, is running about $17 below the standard international price, in large part due to the glut in Cushing. But West Texas crude still costs more than $95 per barrel ? a price that would have seemed shocking just a few years ago.
Indeed, American oil prices have been rising at the same time that fracking and horizontal drilling have revolutionized the nation?s oil industry.
U.S. oil production peaked at 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970, enjoyed a brief resurgence in the 1980s and then entered a long slide. The bottom came in 2008, when production fell to 5 million barrels per day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The rebound has been swift. Last year, U.S. production jumped to 6.4 million barrels per day, according to data released last week by the American Petroleum Institute. Not since 1997 has the country pumped that much oil. And the numbers keep climbing.
Meanwhile, the country?s use of oil and gasoline is falling, albeit slowly. According to the institute, demand for all petroleum products in the United States slid 2 percent in 2012, reaching its lowest point in 16 years. Despite the improving economy, Americans used fewer petroleum products last year than they did in the depths of the recession.
But the world?s thirst for oil, gasoline and diesel continues to grow. And that thirst isn?t easy to slake.
Oil demand in China, for example, rose 3.4 percent last year, reaching 9.68 million barrels per day, according to the Platts energy information service. And 2012 was a relatively rough time for China?s economy, with conditions improving only toward the end of the year. The country?s oil demand hit 10.58 million barrels per day in December, according to Platts.
?Easily offset?
Against that background, the increase in U.S. oil production doesn?t seem so dramatic, certainly not enough to cut the price.
?It?s not even 1 percent of world production,? Felmy said. ?That?s relatively small and can be easily offset.?
The Energy Information Administration does not yet have an estimate for global oil production last year. But in 2011, worldwide production rose less than 1 percent compared with 2010.
Of course, America?s current oil boom is just getting under way.
The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental body not known for wild-eyed predictions, recently forecast that the United States could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world?s largest oil producer by 2020. Will all that extra petroleum finally mean lower prices? That depends on how fast global oil use continues to grow, and how much petroleum other countries produce.
?It?s a difficult question to answer, because there?s not a one-for-one (relationship) between an increase in production and a decrease in prices,? said Doug MacIntyre, director of the Energy Information Administration?s office of petroleum statistics. ?There are so many other factors.?
When a retiree chooses to make investments in gold Individual Retirement Account, the first thing he?ll be expected to accomplish is to select an plan custodian. This custodian is going to be required to ensure there are secured governmental storage space for all gold backed IRA assets. There are great custodians intended for gold and an investor shouldn?t fear. Just after choosing the trustee carefully, the documentation will follow. One should avoid mistakes since there could be fees made.
After one has appropriately started an Individual Retirement Account through a licensed trustee, a program owner is permitted to include his very own portfolios as much as the highest allowed deposits.
People with gold IRAs can get the benefit in that they won?t be affected by the negatives of political, economic, monetary and environmental problems. As a result, they are assured that the investments will increase in price. Because of this, most people are turning their 401b into Roth IRAs and traditional gold backed IRAs.
Throughout the United States, the only allowed kinds of gold kept in gold Individual Retirement Accounts would be the American Eagle Proof coins and American Eagle gold as IRA investments.
The main benefit of a gold Individual Retirement Account would be that the specific investment will not rely on an company?s performance to help keep the market value like other investment plans. Having gold investments, an investor is confident of earnings later on.
I highly recommend you visit this website if you want more tips http://iratogold.net
WASHINGTON (AP) ? As crowds descended and the inauguration unfolded, a few museum curators in Washington kept watch for symbols and messages that would make history.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture will open during President Barack Obama's second term, and one section will feature a large display about the first black president. Curators have been working since 2008 to gather objects, documents and images that capture his place in history.
Curator William Pretzer ventured into the crowd Monday, mostly looking for memorabilia that had a personal touch ? beyond the T-shirts and buttons hawked by vendors. Pretzer was most interested in handmade items, but he didn't find much.
"There's so much commercially produced stuff that people don't go to the trouble anymore," he said. "It's the personal expression, as opposed to the commercial" that the museum most wants to display.
Among the masses of people, Ollie Parham, 55, and her fellow travelers stood out in their bright yellow Alabama NAACP sweatshirts. She rode all night in a tour bus, nearly 19 hours from Huntsville, Ala., to witness Obama's oath-taking.
Pretzer told her about the museum's collection effort and asked whether Parham might donate any memorabilia later. She said she would think about it; she had another all-night drive home to get through first.
Shortly afterward, the curator stopped Larry Holmes, 56, of Washington, who was waving an American flag with an inauguration seal imprinted on the stripes. Holmes bought a similar souvenir flag at Obama's 2009 inauguration. Pretzer took Holmes' picture and handed him a donation card, in case he might donate the flags later.
When Peggy Shamley Christian, a retired teacher from Chesapeake, Va., heard about the collection effort, she dug through her purse to find an Obama magnet. Pretzer gladly accepted the tiny gift.
Christian said she worked to mobilize voters for Obama's re-election and was thrilled to celebrate the inaugural.
"It just makes me feel like I'm a part of something wonderful," she said.
"Instead of being considered a second-class citizen, we all have it going on now," added Christian, who is black. "We all can stand up and be proud."
Keeping an eye out for the unusual, Pretzer spotted a man pulling two life-sized cutouts of the president and first lady on a cart through the crowd. He flagged down Ian Davis, 43, of Baltimore and asked whether he might donate the cutouts later.
Davis had been allowing visitors to take pictures with the "Obamas" for a donation.
"You gotta make a dollar," he said, adding that he hauled the cutouts onto the National Mall "so I can see it, be it and participate."
Police eventually kicked him off the mall for asking for money. Now, Davis' cardboard images might be fit for a museum. He said he would donate them if his wife approves.
The museum has amassed more than 300 Obama-related items, including furniture from a 2008 campaign office in northern Virginia and a cloth banner from Tanzania with an Obama portrait and message reading "Congratulations Barack Obama."
Curators might also try to acquire items from the inauguration platform, including, perhaps, the invocation written by Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Evers was gunned down 50 years ago in the driveway of his Mississippi home. That history became a link between Obama and the civil rights era.
When the museum opens in 2015 near the Washington Monument, one floor will be devoted to a chronology of African-American history, from 16th century slavery through the Civil War, Reconstruction, the civil rights era and beyond. The timeline will end with Obama and the 2008 election as a symbolic moment.
"Portraying a living individual is always more challenging," Pretzer said. "You don't have the perspective, and you don't have all the evidence."
The exhibits can evolve later to show Obama's impact and what comes next.
In planning for the future display, Pretzer and other curators listened closely to Obama's inauguration speech.
"Part of the dynamic is no longer, if it ever were, white and black. The dynamic is now generational. It is gender; he mentioned gay rights, so sexuality; as well as race," Pretzer said. "It was an 'E Pluribus Unum' speech. It was 'out of many, one.'"
Museum Director Lonnie Bunch said Obama's speech was more progressive and aggressive than his first inaugural. It framed the ongoing issues of women's rights, gay rights and immigration in the context of the historic struggle for equality.
"It reminded people that the story of America is not just about today and tomorrow, but it's also about yesterday," Bunch said. "The way he framed his discussion was: 'This history is not a black history. This is a history that has transformed America.'
"The question becomes, how effective is his administration as a model for what the presidency can accomplish?"
___
Online:
National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://nmaahc.si.edu
___
Follow Brett Zongker at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Jan-2013
Share ] 
